Prepaid Legal Services?

[Bhamrichard]

Anyone ever used Prepaidlegal.com for any gun/weapons issues?

I've only recently started carrying my .45 around concealed pretty much 24x7, and it's gotten me thinking about any legal issues that may arise from any of the various circumstances that could come up, i.e. man with a gun, personal defense shooting, etc etc.

As I'm hardly one of the 'well off elite' financially speaking, it seems like an interesting way to have access to an attorney that I might otherwise not be able to afford out of pocket. I'm going to contact them tomorrow and ask specifically about firearms representation etc.

Any thoughts or personal experiences?

 

[Quoheleth]

Save your money, sock a chunk of cash away in a savings account and leave it there for a legal emergency. Call around or ask around and find the name and number of a gun-savvy attorney and keep his card or number handy. If you ever need it, call him and use the savings as a down-payment.

An attorney told me most of these prepaid legal things - for the average citizen - are like having a CPA on retainer when all you have him doing is your annual 1040 - a waste of money.

Others may disagree, but that came from someone I know and I trust.

Q

 

[kingpin008]

Agreed. By and large, pre-paid legal services is a scam.

Googling "is pre-paid legal a scam" will help shed some light.

 

[TAG2501]

PPL is delivered through a local law firm. Call them and ask - it's free if you are a member - nothing to lose. I've had some decent service on a few relatively minor legal matters.
If nothing else, the firm will tell you that PPL doesn't cover it, but may still refer you.

The advice to network and ask around is good though - if you need it the quality of hte legal services is paramount.

 

[Rio Laxas]

It is my opinion that prepaid legal is a scam. There have been a lot of accusations of fraud and the service not living up to its claims, and it has also been accused of being a pyramid scheme. It is my understanding that it is almost impossible to get the services they are supposedly selling you. For my money, I'd rather just have an attorney on retainer.

This was marketed to me by a company that I used to work for as a "benefit". They would not let you read the contract unless you had already agreed to sign up for the service. The woman giving the presentation got visibly hostile when someone took one of the packets and started reading it. We found out later that the owners of the company had gotten caught up in the pyramid scheme by an outside company they hired to manage their benefits. It was one of the many reasons that I quit.

 

[wishin]

From our local consumer protection guru:

http://clarkhoward.com/liveweb/shownotes/2006/05/18/10964/

 

[X-Rap]

Its the AMWAY of legal services.

 

[beatcop]

If you are that worrried, find a lawyer that has a track record of handling this type of case.

Most "services" & lawyers in general work on the most common legal issues: support/custody, tax law, divorce, bankruptcy, common arrests-DUI/Domestic. Find you own "specialist".

 

[testosterone]

If you are that worrried, find a lawyer that has a track record of handling this type of case.

Most "services" & lawyers in general work on the most common legal issues: support/custody, tax law, divorce, bankruptcy, common arrests-DUI/Domestic. Find you own "specialist".

Yep.

I think I've seen even on this forum, the suggestion to find the lawyer, and get 5 or 10 of your friends to each chip in 1K to get him on retainer for this sort of thing.

 

[thebaldguy]

It's not a great idea. I looked at the fine print on an ad.

They basically called all the legal shots. There were many limitations to the legal services. They even reserved the right to appeal or not appeal a ruling.

Save your money for a real good lawyer.

 

[Sebastian the Ibis]

1. I am familiar with the pre-paid lawyer types. They are terrible, you do not want anything to do with them..... except of course if they are on the other side of the table

2. If you are involved in a SD incident, you need an attorney in hours if not minutes. Pre-paid legal services might get you an attorney in week. That does you no good as you are sitting in an interrogation room thinking it might not be a bad idea to confess. The way to get a lawyer to the station immediately is to establish a relationship ahead of time, and let him know you can pay.

3. If you do not have the means to pay for a lawyer, you will need to put $10k ish in the hands of competent criminal defense attorney to get him to the station, then as testosterone said get 5-10 friends together to each put $1k in the attorneys trust account ahead of time with a written agreement between everyone explaining how any of you get to use the money to hire the lawyer if you get caught in XYZ situation.