Your lawyer is your point of contact for any phone advice or office consultation. He is the one who furnishes other legal services specified in your written agreement with your provider. He drafts your will, reviews simple contracts for you, writes letters on your behalf, and makes phone calls to adverse third parties.
If you are unsatisfied with the quality of work, you are getting from your current attorney in the network then you have the choice of choosing alternate attorneys.
You can also make a complaint to your provider’s in-house charge of complaints.
If you benefit from legal services under a group plan scheme, then there are a few parties who are involved in this scheme.
First the contracted firm, just as is the case with an individual plan, is the one which provides all the legal help through its network of attorneys.
There are also two parties involved in the deal: a plan administrator and a plan sponsor.
A plan sponsor is the organization you are member of, which sponsors your legal plan.
Your sponsor can either choose to provide the legal services as a fringe-benefit, as is the case with most employers, pre-charge for the service.
Universities usually charge for any legal service as part of tuition fees or charge low-costs, as do trade unions under a group-bargaining scheme.
Your plan administrator is the person appointed by your sponsor to arrange for the panel of lawyers from the contracted firm to provide services, collects all the fees paid into a pre-paid plan, publicizes the plan, and handles enrolment and marketing.
The administrator may be an employee of the sponsor, an insurance company, or an outside firm.
Authorities that regulate pre-paid plans provide you with an outline of how pre-paid legal services are managed and an outlet in case there are any complaints.
Individual pre-paid legal plans are generally regulated by your state department of consumer affairs.
If you are an employee participating in a group plan funded by your employer, then the legal services are covered and regulated under the deferral Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).
Pre-paid legal service providers are required to provide either a written agreement of the services provided in their plans, or at least a written communication concerning the services covered, together with the fees to be charged for services not covered in the written agreement of membership.
However, most people gloss over terms and conditions and just sign the agreement assuming they are covered for most legal services.
This usually gives rise to frequent complaints about the service, fee disputes, and complaints about attorneys.
Generally, if you have any complaint with your service, you should first address any such complaint with your service provider.
Contact them to get information regarding their in-house complaint process and settlement of disputes.
If you are unsatisfied, then it helps to know who regulates your kind of legal insurance.
Your state’s Department of consumer affairs licenses and regulates all pre-paid legal plans.
Prepaid legal service companies are required to register with the department prior to commencing business and appoint a sales representative.
Further regulation can be provided by your local bar association.
We are likely to need legal help at least once a year, yet most of us do not actively seek legal help.
Close to three quarters of American adults experience some event during a twelve-month period that may require the services of a lawyer.
Over half of those who needed an attorney chose not to hire one, and close to 80% of those yet to experience legal problems gave strong indications they might go down the same route.
