Prepaid Legal Services

[kidkioti]

Have an easement issue with neighbor. Came across an advertisement for Prepaid Legal Services. Would like to hear from Anybody that may have had enrolled or dealt with this Service? I'm a retired senile citizen and my name i$$ not Rockefeller. Your input would be appreciated. Thank you for taking the time to post.

 

[Vineyard Dave]

I have a friend that is working for Prepaid Legal. Known him since HighSchool. He's a straight shooter and trustworthy. If you like, I can get his contact info for you.

 

[Dano5509]

Prepaid Legal is a multilevel marketing company that recruits independent people to market legal plans. You pay a monthly fee and have access to law firm/s in your area. The independent reps/distributors build up an organization of other reps and earn override commissions in their downline/s on a monthly basis.

I knew a guy back in 1998 who got into it. The plans seem decent for basic legal services but the ad you saw was likely a business person looking for people to bring into his/her organization.

 

[dmccarty]

25ish years ago I bought into a prepaid legal service. Egads that was a long time ago. Seems like yesterday. Anywho, it was too long ago for me to remember the costs and number of hours of legal time I got but the price had to be cheap since I barely had two nickles to rub together.

My car was stolen and I quickly found out two things.

1. The huge sum of money I had been paying Nationwide was a waste.
2. Nationwide lies and is NOT on my side.

So I talked to my prepaid lawyer. I was not really impressed. Now it might be I did not like the answers she gave me but I expected a bit more from her.

As so many things in life you get what you pay for or should. Most lawyers will talk to you before charging. Find someone who is local and knows real estate law. Just someone on the phone may not have the knowledge to help you out with your problem.

I subscribe to Progressive Farmers and the legal section is almost always filled with easement issues.

I would STRONGLY suggest you go read MBARB's easement thread that is here on TBN. It has to be the longest and longest running thread on this website. LONG story short he and his nutty neighbor got into a legal dispute over an easement. MBARB lost to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars. He lost the money AND he still has the nutty neighbors.

An easements issue requires a competent lawyer not the lowest bidder.

Later,
Dan

 

[orezok]

I have prepaid legal through Hyatt Legal (MetLife). It's worth about what I pay per year. The biggest problem is that there are a very limited number of plan attorneys in my area and they mostly specialize in estate/will/trust issues.

Typically they will not handle litigation issues. I have had them write several "demand" letters which solved some minor problems just because the letter came from an attorney.

Do some research on who and what specialties are available in your area.

 

[Dargo]

Prepaid Legal is a multilevel marketing company that recruits independent people to market legal plans. You pay a monthly fee and have access to law firm/s in your area. The independent reps/distributors build up an organization of other reps and earn override commissions in their downline/s on a monthly basis.

I knew a guy back in 1998 who got into it. The plans seem decent for basic legal services but the ad you saw was likely a business person looking for people to bring into his/her organization.

Yup, was recruited to sell it years ago. Basically the the Amway of attorneys needing money.

 

[greasemonkeyok]

Just my humble opinion,

1: prepaid legal is more about selling stock in the company and selling plans to unions - less about retaining skilled attorneys to handle tough cases.

2: Boundary-line disputes and easements are tough cases.

 

[CurlyDave]

You get what you pay for.

Don't try to go cheap on something about your land.

 

[kidkioti]

Have an easement issue with neighbor. Came across an advertisement for Prepaid Legal Services. Would like to hear from Anybody that may have had enrolled or dealt with this Service? I'm a retired senile citizen and my name i$$ not Rockefeller. Your input would be appreciated. Thank you for taking the time to post.

Would like to thank those that have shared their time & input to post to my question and also those that have read the thread. I did take some time and followed dmccarty suggestion of reading The MBARB's Story. That's a scary scenario!

Dan writes that I can talk to a lawyer before before charging. However are there any fees just to make an appointment and talk to a lawyer about your situation? Like consultation fees, etc.??? As you can guess I not really versed on these matters and don't try to look for trouble.

The reason I bring that up is from what the forum has presented concerning Prepaid Legal Services that I agree this will probably not work for me in this case. Thanks for answering my question! KK

 

[dmccarty]

Kidkioti,

Over the years we have talked with a number of lawyers about different issues and paid nothing.

Not that we are cheap but the lawyers did not charge for answering a couple of questions.

Our latest round of lawyer talk was due to a car accident about 18 months ago. We have talked with one lawyer quite a few times but we have not been billed for the conversation. I would guess the wifey has talked to this lawyer a good hour spread out over a couple of phone calls and maybe a meeting.

Usually we just talk to them on the phone and conversation does not last long. Maybe 15 minutes. I can remember one face to face meeting years ago that went on for maybe 20 minutes. No charge for any of these conversations.

Lets say your easement problem is that one of the people using the easement is damaging the property. I would not expect to pay if I asked the lawyer what can be done about the problem. If the lawyer has to send out a letter or some such then you would have to pay but I would not expect to pay much for that service.

On the other hand it can be expensive as MBARB's situation...

Later,
Dan