Prepaid Legal Services for Small Business

Buy legal coverage and advice on the installment plan
By W. Eric Martin, Keyboard pounder & synonym selecter TwoWriters.net It's hardly news: hiring a lawyer to represent your business can be prohibitively expensive, whether you need a trial attorney or simple advice on contracts and debt collection. One way to keep legal costs down is to use prepaid legal plans. Prepaid legal plans are a little like HMOs for health care. A prepaid legal service typically contracts with one law firm in each state that handles calls from businesses within that state. Under a prepaid legal plan, you pay a monthly fee – from as low as $10 to $100 or more – for a package of basic services such as:

1. Unlimited phone consultations with an attorney
2. A certain number of contract reviews and collection actions per month
3. Discounts on other legal services.

 

Review available plan types

In a prepaid legal plan, you typically pay in advance to cover the cost of future legal services. For a monthly fee, a prepaid access plan will get you phone consultations and a set number of additional services. A group legal plan generally lowers legal costs by discounting legal fees of a particular lawyer or firm. A comprehensive prepaid legal plan costs more than an access plan, but it covers an average of 80 percent of a person's expected legal needs, far more than an access plan.
Try: See different legal plan choices at the American Prepaid Legal Service Institute website; you can also peruse its directory of prepaid plans.

Should you wait until you really need legal help?

One advantage of signing up for a prepaid legal plan is that you can tap legal help more quickly when you actually need it. Without such a plan, you might delay asking for advice because you don't want to pay a steep one-time fee - and holding off on advice might worsen your situation or at least delay resolution.
Try: Prepaid legal plans are available through LegalSurvival.com, Advance Pay Legal Services, Preferred Legal Plan, and Pre-paid Legal Services, Inc.. (Business plans aren't available in all states through every vendor).

Can your employees benefit?

Aside from using a prepaid legal service for your business, you can offer coverage to employees and their families as part of a benefit package.
Try: To set up prepaid legal services as an employee benefit, you can contact Pre-paid Legal Services, Inc., LegalSurvival.com, or Legal Club of America.

Who will be helping you?

Check the firm you'll be working with under a prepaid plan. Does anyone at the firm have small business experience, especially within your industry?
Try: Ask the plan for the legal background of the attorneys who will be on call or search for their backgrounds yourself on Martindale.com.

• Make sure you understand what's included in your plan and what you'll have to pay extra for.
• Remember that you'll likely talk to a different person each time you use the service. If you want to develop a relationship with one lawyer, you should skip legal plans.
• Ask how the legal plan handles conflicts of interest in case you have a dispute with someone who also uses the service.
• Before signing up with a plan, call local lawyers and see whether they'll offer an affordable payment plan should you ever need their services.