Does anyone have any experience with Pre-Paid Legal services?

My company is offering this as a benefit, and is picking up the monthly cost so I dont have to pay anything out of pocket. It sounds like a good service since we have 24-hour access to high-level attorneys should a legal situation arise and we can have a will written up for free, amongst multiple other benefits.

The one caveat is that we are allowed to take part in the multi-level marketing aspect of the company as well, which seems kinda shady.

I'm just wondering if anyone has done anything with them before and if they have any good/bad experiences with the service.

2/26/2010 11:59:33 AM

The lawyers on it suck. The absolutely worst attorney I have ever dealt with was via pre-paid legal.

2/26/2010 12:08:08 PM

hmm, interesting, I've heard there are decent lawyers associated with it. I now the guy who has the commercials for the legal hotline, Merritt-Flebotte is on there

but thats good to know I guess

2/26/2010 12:09:36 PM

Quote :

"The one caveat is that we are allowed to take part in the multi-level marketing aspect of the company as well, which seems kinda shady. "

Allowed, or required?

2/26/2010 1:01:06 PM

its not required, I think that would be illegal

if we want to go out and market/sell the service, then we are allowed to make money off of it if we want. I'm not a salesman, so I dont want any part of it, as do most of the people in my company

2/26/2010 1:07:31 PM

PPL = scam.

2/26/2010 1:20:44 PM

Seriously though, avoid PPL.

2/26/2010 1:21:06 PM

i have it.

I don't partake in the multilevel marketing BS

I haven't had any legal trouble but they walked me through the entire process of setting up an LLC, they look over all of my paperwork and contracts that I may have.

It's def good to have 24 hour access to a lawyer. The Raleigh lawyer for PPL is Merritt-Flebotte-Wilson-Webb and Caruso.

2/26/2010 1:49:15 PM

my boss just asked me about some lawyer bullshit for 2.00/week the other day. I bet it was this bullshit and I smelled multi level marketing/pyramid/scam from square 1.

2/26/2010 7:04:53 PM

Shrug, my company has it at ~$5/month. I found it useful resolving some housing issues at one point but I wouldn't rely on them for larger stuff.

2/26/2010 7:23:07 PM

redundant use of 'bullshit' ITT.

2/26/2010 8:29:15 PM

i think my dad has it with his co

i dunno if they've done anything with them

they called us a shitload when my parents were in the hospital

oh i know why...because there was drama with the wills and who had the power of attorney and stuff. they were helpful with that esp since i had no idea what the fuck was going on. i dunno much more about them.

2/26/2010 9:53:09 PM

I used to sell PPL when I was in college, I was on the brickyard getting info out as an independent associate years ago. I even went to the national convention in Las Vegas as a freshmen in 2002.

I haven't had it in about 5 years so minor things might have changed since then. I'm no longer an independent associate so I have nothing to lose or gain by conveying this information.

First of all people, it's not a scam. It's a legitimate well-structured company. It really does pay for itself the first time you use it. You pay a monthly fee (used to be $30) and in return for that fee, you basically get 'legal insurance' and access to a network of lawyers across the country. You have access to a local attorney anywhere in the continental USA, and help is as easy as calling a toll-free number. There are a number of benefits for members and I'll list the most important ones.

1. You get a free will preparation. This is the best benefit, all members should take advantage of it, and you could literally get the service, get your will prepared, and drop your service and you will have saved money right off the bat.

2. If you get a traffic citation, an attorney will go to court for you free of charge, anywhere. There's a few clauses, like if drugs or alcohol are involved, or somebody is injured, then the lawyer is not free, you just get the 25% discount (see 4 below). But if it's just a simple speeding ticket or something like that, then there's no charge. You still have to pay court costs and fines, but you don't have to go to court and you don't pay the lawyer. This was great when I got a ticket in Mt. Airy for 88 in a 65. I called PPL, mailed back some forms later on, I never had to go out to Surry County, and he got it reduced to a 74 in a 65.

3. If somebody sues you in civil court, you have a free defense attorney. This is great because it really empowers you and gives you a leg to stand on if somebody threatens to sue you. Tell them to go ahead and sue you, and you'll soon figure out.

4. There is a catch-all 25% discount. If something doesn't fall under the category of no charge, then at worst you are afforded a discount for legal services of any kind. Criminal and divorce law would be examples.

5. You get documents (leases, contracts, agreements, etc.) reviewed for free. You no longer have the excuse of "not reading the fine print" because it's free for a lawyer to read it for you, just fax the document over.

6. You have access to a lawyer 24/7. If you are being detained, questioned, hassled, or anything by a police officer, you have the right to stop them, inform them that you immediately wish to speak with your lawyer, make a toll-free call, and you can have somebody on the phone to speak with the police almost on-demand. PPL actually gives you a card for you to put in your glove box or in your wallet that has the toll-free number and spells out your rights and you can show that card to any officer.

7. Free angry letters. If a company or somebody has ripped you off, you can have your PPL attorney write and send an angry letter on your behalf. Again, it's a lot more empowering then having to resort to saying "well I'm gonna report you to the BBB."

Like I said it's been a few years so I don't know the specifics of PPL in 2010, but that should give you a fair idea of the service. If your employer is offering this benefit TAKE IT!!! Absolutely take it, or even if they offer it at a discount it's totally worth it.

Blanket statements like "the lawyers on it suck" are from haters that had a bad experience. It's just like health insurance, maybe some of the doctors in your network do actually suck, but there is an overall high quality of service. And at $30 a month, with never any commitments, if you don't feel like you are getting your money's worth then just cancel it, it's not a big deal. In the year or so that I sold the service, I never had any of my customers bitching me out saying they wanted their money back. Likewise, in the 3 or 4 times I used the service myself as a member, I was very satisfied.

So that's the whole service side of pre-paid legal. Then there's the whole other side of being an independent associate and getting paid. Like KeB said, it's multilevel marketing, just like Tupperware, or Mary Kay, or whatever. You get paid for every person that signs up and keeps the service, plus you earn money when you recruit independent associates, plus you earn money whenever someone below you recruits or sells. You can also try and get companies to offer PPL in their benefits package. You build up your group, and PPL can make you some money. So is someone making money when you elect to take the service? Absolutely! But that's not any different then say medical sales or any other sales company for that matter. Like I said, I went to the national convention and saw first-hand just how much you can make if you're good at this kind of thing. I didn't like all the cold-calling and figured out that sales wasn't for me, so I went back to working in restaurants and sticking with what I was good at. My PPL experience was very positive and introspective. It's a bit of a shame that somewhere along the line (and I'm sure there was a good reason at one point in time) PPL got a bad reputation for being just another pyramid scam.

I hope ya'll find this helpful in making your informed decisions. It's kind of funny that I've only sparingly thought about PPL in the last few years, but I still remember all this crap from '02!

2/27/2010 8:01:47 PM

^ i thought for sure that was going to end up with the outside-sales thing.

2/27/2010 8:19:37 PM

good overview. i knew nothing about PPL and now i do

2/27/2010 9:04:13 PM

Hmmmm...I dunno man. I'll elaborate more when I'm back, but I got my reservations

2/27/2010 9:16:16 PM

^he did explain it pretty well

you pay a flat monthly rate and have access to lawyers 24/7

I'd recommend it to anyone and everyone and like i said you don't have to participate in the marketing side to benefit from having the service

2/28/2010 4:07:59 AM

I'm talking to the OP, not Wolfy or RattlerRyan's explanation

2/28/2010 9:32:16 AM

ive never heard anything good about pre-paid legal

2/28/2010 9:53:08 AM

wow, RattlerRyan thanks for that post, that is pretty much what I was already thinking about PPL, just good to hear it from someone besides the salesman who explained the benefit to us. We do get it for free as part of our benefit package, and I'm not going to take part in the sales/marketing side of things, so I think its going to be a good thing to have.

this is why I love tww, threads like this

2/28/2010 11:38:36 AM

cheers

2/28/2010 1:15:03 PM

I have pre-paid legal. Currently pay $7/pay-check. From my understanding you get your money worth out of it for "routine" charges like speeding tickets. I also know a guy at work whose daughter got charged with assault for beating up her ex-b/f and the lawyer they got helped her get off. On the other hand I have attempted to use my PPL to deal with some litigation I am pursuing against a local carwash and the help i have gotten has been garbage. Next month I have a speeding ticket in Rockingham and will be using my pre-paid legal.

2/28/2010 6:15:28 PM

^ she didn't need a lawyer to get rid of that charge, all she had to do was wound herself and cry

wait, this is The Lounge.

I'll go ahead and cosign RattlerRyan's post, and I don't know him from a bird in a tree. The will prep and 24/7 lawyer services make it worth it immediately. The person who told me about it tried to get me into the sales side of it, but it really wasn't for me. I'd do it for supplementary income in a pinch, but I know I'd never fully dedicate myself to that aspect of it.

2/28/2010 7:17:29 PM

Drod, the way I justified it was that if I got a single speeding ticket or such than i would have gotten my money's worth. A lot of the old people at my job also use it to have someone to look over mortgage contracts or to do their will.

2/28/2010 7:19:28 PM

You get what you pay for with legal services.

Keep in mind that attorneys do not charge more than a couple hundred of dollars for a traffic ticket, will preparation or other items offered under prepaid legal.

I believe these services require that you pay for your own court costs and fines.

3/4/2010 9:03:52 PM

I've got MetLaw/Hyatt Legal Plans through my job. I don't think it's like the PPL most people are referring to here. It's basically like health insurance, but for legal stuff. I've used them a number of times for family things, and never had a problem. They have a ton of lawyers to chose from.

3/4/2010 10:55:41 PM