Pre-Paid Legal ? Other legal aid?

Hi Dave,

I have had a PrePaid Legal membership since 3/98 when a friend of mine told me it may help with a situation I currently had. My initial though was how could any attorney, much less a nationwide network of supposedly top-rated attorneys halp me and at the rediculously low price of $26 a month. Then my next though was I had blown nearly this much on a bad meal in the past so why not check it out.

Long story short ... I did check it out and was referred to a local attorney who was able to help me out. I did have to pay additional fees as this was a pre-existing issue but I paid about 1/2 of what it would have cost me without the membership.
Funny thing was that I knew this attorney was great at what he did but I also knew he was one of the most expensive in town so that is why I did not initially call him. (Money was an issue at the time).

I also found out that Pre-Paid Legal only promises a 25% reduction in fees on pre-existing issues but in GA. where I live the law firms have a $95 cap rate on their charges should we ever need to hire them. The referal attorney only had to recognize the 25% reduced fee but said he too would honor the cap rate that the provider attorneys go by.

I thought about dropping the coverageafter my issue was solved because I had rarely used an attorney in the past. When I called the guy who sold me my membership he told me that the whole thing would have been covered if I owned the membership prior to the issue arriving. That impressed me but when I thought about how much it would have cost without the reduced rate I paid I realized it pretty much would have paid the cost of the membership for 3 years and 9 months.

I also though about if this were a medical case or an auto accident and I got coverage after I had an accident or health issue, I would never have received any help on those issues within the coverage. Also I would have had a higher premium to pay because I would have had the prior issues.
I kept the membership.

Later I found out that PPL has never gone up on the rates of an existing client in 30 years. What other insurance coverage can we say that about?

This coverage has helped me a number of times since I first bought it. I realized that since I had it and did not have to make a financial decision before calling attornies I picked up the phone much more quickly than in the past. So far I have saved enough to cover my membership fees for approx. 11 years.

My sisters stepson was in an auto accident where a lady friend of his was in the front seat and lost her life. There were no drugs or alcohol involved but yet he was sued. It was bad enough I felt to have to live with the idea that a dear friend lost their life, yet another thing that it happened because of an accident where he was behind the wheel. But now to be getting sued?!

With PPL this WHOLE thing would have been covered in any state in America. The problem was he did not have the coverage.

It ended up costing him $10,000 retainer fee and the cost the last I heard had risen to $78,000. At last conversation he has only paid $27,000.
How hard is it to get hands on that kind of money? It is differant for differant people but in this case this was a young man of 23 years old and he did not have much money. My sister does fairly well but still had to sell off some investments to get her hands on money for the retainer. How hard would it be for us to get our hands on this money? How easy would it be to replace the money? Can an accident happen to any of us?

I will never be without my membership. I did start selling the memberships and within 6 months decided to shut down my advertising business and work PPL. My ad business ate up a lot of my time (approx. 50-60 hours/wk.)and I realized for me I was earning about the same with PPL in 7-10 hours of focused time and effort a week. I bought back my time. I have just recently started back in the field of advertising on a very part-time basis mostly in a small project to benefit some non-profit organizations and some businesses but it is because I can and not because of the money any more. PPL pays me very well and I still only work maybe 5 to 10 hours a week with them.

I tell you all this to say that in my experiance PPL has been a blessing to me and many of those I sold a membership to. I have also built a small organization of membership owners who also wanted to get paid for telling others about this service. I have single moms, insurance agents, real estate agents, pastors, attornies, a state senator, other business owners, a cab driver, and people from all other walks of life in my business. About 20% of us are doing any work and 80% are doing anything from very part-time, sometime and nothing. This is true no matter where you go in any business, any school, any marriage or for that matter any forums.

Why am I saying this? I believe everyone should protect their family and own the membership. I do not however believe that everyone should get in the PPL business. I don't think most people have a business aptitude. It isn't because they aren't smart enough or couldn't learn it or do it. It is because they will not take the time to learn and once they learn the will not do the activities that produce a paycheck.

Dave, if you think you belive in the service enough to own it, then get back with the person who introduced you to the service and tell them it makes sense to you and you want it.

If the business makes sense to you and you are willing to learn what to do first ... and then second you are willing to replace some non-income producing time to work PPL then do it. Give it a year minimum of concentrated effort. (Can you imagine someone who just bought a McDonalds franchise or any other brick and mortar type business who makes a substantial investment saying they will only TRY IT for one year? No! They will do whatever it takes to make that business work. You will not be investing what they will have invested but if you will treat it like you invested $500,000+ and show up on the job every day and work it ... you will have a good business and own some of your time if that is what is important to you.)

I find that in most businesses that others have done well in and many others have not ... it is not because the business does not work, it is because of the 80/20 rule I mentioned above. Most are just not willing to do what it takes. In PPL if you are not earning money you are either not doing something right ... or you are not doing it enough. I guess that could be said about most anything couldn't it?

Dave, I hope this helps you.

Randy Sutton

> Greetings,

> Has anyone had experiance with PrePaid Legal
> sevices? Unfortunately, I find myself in
> need of legal aid to help with a rather
> unpleasent severance agreement, without the
> needed funds. (I never knew it could be so
> hard getting fired!) They are like I stepped
> in something and can't get free. I remember
> a seminar about PPL and it sounds even
> better now, but I seem to remember both good
> and bad comments about the actual service.
> Also wonder about it as a biz op? Legit
> enough to recommend to friends & family?
> Any other suggestions to help negotiate a
> one-sided(theirs) severance offer?
> Thanks, Dave




This has worked for me