The majority of us will never be involved in a high drama trial so why would we need prepaid legal services? You have a great job in Mountain View, CA and life is good. You make a good salary, you have money in savings, you pay your bills, and things are fine. Your human recourses department announces at work that there is a new addition to the employee benefits program, pre-paid legal services at Countrywide. Like your health coverage and everything else your company offers you as far as employee benefits you have the option to add this or decline it. You don’t even know a lawyer; you haven’t needed one your entire life, so why would you start paying for one now? You do a little research and find out that the payments are made through small payroll deduction which is nice. By signing up you have access to a huge network of attorneys that cover many legal issues that I may need. The best part is you do not have to worry about cost because I can call for advice, have face to face consultations, examination of my documents, and many more services are covered by those small payroll deductions.
It sounds great but you pass because again, you have never needed the services of an attorney in your entire life. So a few months go by and you want to buy a house, or you get a speeding ticket, or you need to refinance your mortgage, or you need to set up your will, or a family member died and you are inheriting money or something else happens and you need an attorney. So what do you do, you go straight for the phone book because that’s the only resource you have.
Studies have shown that over 81% of mistakes made in the legal field by the average person are actually related to paper work, either the person does not understand what they are reading/signing, or they do not know what needs to be filed. The fact is that unless you have knowledge of how to handle a legal situation the smartest thing you can do is to get an attorney to assist you. Now the average cost of an attorney, even for simple legal matters like helping you with documents, can be very expensive. However, if you have the benefit of prepaid legal services through your employer you do not have to worry about the cost and you can have immediate assistance from a qualified and experienced attorney.