Articles Posted in Legal documents

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Legal Assistance gets bureaucracy moving

Local government prides itself on being a servant of the people. The only difficulty is sometimes it can be a person’s worst nightmare. Bureaucracy has a bad habit of making the simplest things complicated. There can be forms and applications for house renovation, vendors licenses, and simple rights of ownership. Most of the paperwork is meant to make sure that no one is cheated, and the laws and city ordinances are obeyed. Still, it would be nice to cut through the red tape. Companies can help by providing a group legal plan that offers some important assistance.

A Forest of Rules

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Making sure a Warranty is Enforced

Warranties help sell products. It is that little extra bit of protection or assurance that convinces a buyer to make a purchase of an appliance that might be just a touch more than the budget can handle. The cost doesn’t matter because the warranty protects against damage that may occur over a given period of time. It just seems to be a very sensible thing for consumer to do. It is if the issuer honors the warranty. It is a sad state of affairs but there are occasions when a manufacturer or store refuses to honor the warranty which they sold. Additionally, they can claim that interpretation of the fine print of the warranty exempts them from any liability. This a major point of frustration for a lot of people and results in a number of angry calls. All of this can be put to a side if an employer has a group legal plan for the workforce.

Wordy Confusion

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Handshakes are rarely used anymore to seal the deal. It is not because people have become untrustworthy, but agreements for services have become increasingly more complex. It is very important to have something in writing, especially if the parties to the agreement are at a distance from each other. It can happen that a person gets confused going through all of the clauses of the paper. Legal terminology is something that perplexes a lot of people and can cause undue hesitation. Voluntary benefit plans for legal services should include contract review services because it can often stop things from getting out of control.

The Wording Creates Concern

The concern arises from reading words that are not used in everyday speech. The language of a contract is very precise in the eyes of the law but the average person worries that there may be something hidden. The stress caused creates a great deal of anxiety that sometimes carries over to the work cubicle. The company that has a voluntary benefit plan with legal assistance provides something that will ease a very worried mind. Countrywide Pre-Paid Legal Services offers a group legal plan that allows for review of contracts and other legal documents. The attorneys who are part of the Countrywide legal network offer a review of legal documents up to six pages per document. Their experienced eyes can see the meaning behind the phrases and a plan member is advised of what certain sections mean. That is not the only service provided by a Countrywide voluntary benefit plan. We understand that a person may still have some questions, and that is why an unlimited number of telephone calls to the attorney on a given situation are allowed.

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There has been a lot of attention given to government agencies recently with the shutdown of the federal government and all that it entailed. Bureaucracy is not just at the federal level but is also part of state and local government. As a matter fact, people more often deal with the state and local levels to get things done. It sometimes can be quite a headache. There are all kinds of forms to be filled out and certain pieces of evidence have to be readily available in order to get needed service. Even very patient people can get quickly frustrated. Group legal service plans that allow for help with government requirements help a person get access to needed services quickly.

Interpreting the Guidelines

A serious challenge for a lot of ordinary citizens is the instructions and guidelines required to get government assistance. Countrywide Pre-Paid Legal Services has the Personal Legal Protector Plan which is a group legal plan that includes advice on government programs. This legal benefit provides access to a network of highly qualified attorneys. They will help any plan member understand complicated instructions, and how to apply for services. The assistance is not limited to one level of government. A Countrywide group legal plan will help plan members as they seek government help at the federal, state, or local levels. The attorneys are very aware of all the frustration a person can experience in trying to work with various public agencies. With patience and a sincere understanding of other people’s feelings, these lawyers give guidance with a very personal touch. People worry about the nuances of any government guidelines. They become concerned that a misunderstanding can result in not getting what is needed. The Countrywide lawyers zero in on what may be confusing language and strip away all of the uncertainty. Their counsel is supported by other options within a group legal plan designed by Countrywide. Unlimited attorney telephone calls on a given situation and the drafting of legal letters on behalf of a plan member all help in moving the process along.

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Good legal advice makes it easier

Folks often wonder exactly how many trees were cut down to make the paper needed for a contract. There just seems to be page after page of legal wording that might as well be written in a foreign language for all anybody can understand. The law has its own language, and is steeped in words that are little bit unclear to the average reader. Maryland has been extremely careful to make sure that all of its statutes are in understandable English, but there still are some phrases in a contract that seem steeped in mystery.

It’s not just a contract that’s baffling, other types of legal documents can be just as maddening. Promissory notes, leases, and affidavits all look like an intricate maze of verbs and nouns. It’s tough for employees to try to go through all of the verbiage because they are not trained in legal terminology. Frustrated, they go looking for help and hope to find it at the workplace. The corporate legal department of a company is busy with other matters and helping an employee might cause a conflict of interest, but that doesn’t mean management refuses to recognize the need to assist a flustered employee. Decision makers do need some option that will help employees without adding any more worries. Group legal plans allow management to steer employees away from corporate counsel to professionals who are ready to be of service. One of the benefits of prepaid legal services is the opportunity to have an attorney take a look at the paperwork and make sense of it all.

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A recent story in Employee Benefit News highlighted the top uses of legal plans by members. One of these happens to be dealing with creditors. People develop credit problems for one reason or another, and it is not against the law to be in debt. However, some of the things that creditors do to get their money come close to being criminal.

Creditors are notorious for harassment. They will make phone calls at any time of the day to pester a person about outstanding debts. This can be a serious problem for an employer because if a person has made public his or her office phone number, creditors can easily call the office and hound the individual at the workplace. People in credit debt need to understand collection laws and what can be done to stop the harassment. The Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (FDCPA) has outlined what a debt collector can legally do, but the average person is not too familiar with all the steps necessary to avoid harassing phone calls. This is where having a group legal benefit plan can be of great benefit to an employee.

Such assistance granted by the employer allows an individual to get in contact with experienced debt legal counsel. The attorneys can inform a person of his or her rights, and how to stop a debt collection agency from making life a holy hell. It is possible that debt collectors may be in violation of the law and can be sued. Group legal protection can help a person file a tort for all the distress caused and successfully seek damages caused by the wrongful activity. Best of all, the fees for such a lawsuit can be kept within reasonable bounds thanks to a legal benefit provided by an employer.

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Information technology has truly exploded in the last 10 years. It isn’t just mainframe computers or PCs that store personal information, but also smart phones, and iPads and other tools of the social network revolution. There are quite a few places where personal information can be stored and that is not always a good thing. Identity theft has become an increasingly more serious crime.

Legally speaking, Identity theft is the actual taking of someone’s identity and assuming to be that person. It is ordinarily linked with credit cards and bank accounts but other areas such as health care savings accounts or retirement benefits can also be affected. It is a serious form of fraud that has been magnified by the accessibility of information through computer hacking and computer viruses. The consequences can be nothing short of a disaster, as identity theft can be used not only to break into an individual’s bank accounts, but even destroy a person’s credit rating before that individual even knows what is happening. The state of Pennsylvania has taken action and there are laws regarding identity theft in Pennsylvania statutes, which also include restitution. The laws are on the books but the damage may still have been done to person’s credit rating. Certain legal action may be needed to be taken to restore credit integrity, or process claims for reimbursement of electronically stolen funds. This can be a very involved process and group legal plans can help.

The illegal activity will require the processing of documents to restore a person’s good name after a serious case of identity theft. This may include filing paperwork germane to restoring a healthy credit status such as a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) complaint, or a fraud alert on a credit file. A credit bureau may have disclosed privileged information and may be liable, necessitating legal action to collect damages. Not everybody has the financial resources to afford any of this, but if a company has a group legal plan the employees can take advantage of it to go about restoring financial integrity. A group legal plan can direct an individual to lawyers who are skilled in the area of identity theft. Perhaps the greatest service these barristers can do is cut the amount of time needed to undo the damage. For anyone who relies on credit for buying a house or even maintaining credit cards time is a critical concern. If litigation is necessary, the group legal plan can keep the costs manageable.

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There are quite a few people in New Jersey who sincerely believe that there’s not much required to create a will and protect their New Jersey estate for loved ones. It seems so simple to just write something down, get it signed, and have a notary public stamp it.

They just feel there’s no reason to have a lawyer involved. That is a bad mistake.

New Jersey does adhere to the Uniform Probate Code to make these little bit easier but the process of drawing up an effective will takes some understanding of the legal code in the Garden State. Moreover, circumstances change and a beneficiary may die before the principal passes away, created complications which the originator of the will may not have considered. The worst-case scenario is that a beneficiary dies, and then the principal of the estate passes away, and survivors have to prove that the original beneficiary is deceased. Such estate disasters are the finer points of probate that attorneys who are part of New Jersey based prepaid legal plans recognize immediately. They can advise a person quickly about what to do to prevent something like this happening, making certain that the last will and testament has a contingency to cover the death of the primary beneficiary.

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It wasn’t too long ago that HR departments worried a lot about high levels of absenteeism. A struggling economy seems to be taking care of that situation, because people are now trying to hang onto their jobs and mental health days are things of the past. Unfortunately, there’s a new phenomenon that is creating a problem and it is known as presenteeism.

It happens when employees report to work but do not function at full productivity. In other words, the company is paying for a person who is present but not working very hard. The cost for this low efficiency can be very substantial. Business experts note that people reporting in when they’re sick is one of the causes, but being distracted by outside difficulties is just as bad. An employee who has worries on the mind is not working to capacity. In an intelligence driven workforce where cognitive skills are essential for profitability, this is quite serious. Major sources of such production threatening distractions are legal problems outside of the office.

It is estimated that over one third of all employees are confronted at one time or another with legal issues. While most anxieties involve estate planning and wills, matters such as family law and identity theft also plague a productive person’s thoughts. These have the ability to turn one’s attention away from a deadline and a company has to find the means to reduce the distraction. A group legal plan is a strong possible solution.

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Companies of every size have executives and upper-level managers. These people have special needs that reflect their status and these may include legal advice. The assistance may be a little bit out of the ordinary, including the need to do develop living trusts and other documents to protect estate and property alike. The legal proceedings will cost a fair amount of money and have the potential of distracting attention away from company business. Companies can seriously help their top decision makers if they are able to provide upper management with legal service in the form of a prepaid legal plans.

It’s all about time and how it is used. A top level executive has experience and expertise which a company needs to be profitable. This individual’s time should not be consumed with tracking down legal counsel for matters of a personal nature. Prepaid legal plans can help these people with matters of contract and of property law; things that are critically important to an executive’s peace of mind. In addition, prepaid legal plans permit a number of free services and discounts on others. The benefit to an executive is that expensive legal nightmares are not cropping up. Sensitive matters of family law or financial deliberations are handled not by impersonal web sites, but attorneys who are experts in the given fields. The calm that all of this provides for an executive means that his or her thoughts can be more concerned with corporate matters and not be consumed with worries about the law.

Prepaid legal plans can of course be just for upper management only, why stop there? It is a fantastic service for employees and has very serious value as a retention device. That can be especially helpful if a company has highly skilled technical people who are difficult to replace. These plans are a benefit that can persuade a special database administrator or skilled analyst that staying is a good idea.

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