pre-paid legal services for family law issues?

[Anonymous]

Has anyone ever used a pre-paid legal service for post-divorce family law issues (i.e. one former spouse wants to modify the separation agreement)? If so, did you find it helpful/worth it?

[Anonymous]

My ex did this, and he pretty much got what he paid for. His lawyer was not terribly interested in his case, and ended up costing ME about $2,000 in extra fees because he took forever to go through the paperwork my lawyer was sending over, and my lawyer had to keep checking in with him. (at a cost of $30 per email.) Then he missed a deadline to file that meant we had to go to court ON MY BIRTHDAY for an uncontested, amicable matter. Then he didn't show up to court on that day, so my ex had to authorize MY lawyer to act on his behalf too.

Luckily we were uncontested on everything and I actually had a normal lawyer. But the entire process cost me $5,000 when it could have cost me $2-$3K, because of him and his lawyer. So I made him pay for it.

Hopefully others have had better experiences.

[Anonymous]

Ironically, I am a lawyer (big firm corporate type) who was just thinking last weekend about the need for a high quality type prepaid plan. I have not yet figured out the business model that would work - I hear stories like this and see a market need but am concerned about to execute on a high quality way. If anyone has had positive experiences or knowledge of what works and what doesn't - all ears here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ironically, I am a lawyer (big firm corporate type) who was just thinking last weekend about the need for a high quality type prepaid plan. I have not yet figured out the business model that would work - I hear stories like this and see a market need but am concerned about to execute on a high quality way. If anyone has had positive experiences or knowledge of what works and what doesn't - all ears here.

That's funny, PP. I am a lawyer in Canada (educated and trained in the US) and I'm trying to figure out the same thing.

[Anonymous]

I was an associate at a firm and the owner entered a contract for prepaid legal services with some national firm. It was awful. The clients paid a crazy amount of money to this nationally known firm when they could have hired our firm directly for about a quarter of the price. The firm was paid some pittance of what the client paid and, as an associate with no hope of ever making partner, I saw nothing in my compensation package change for this extra work. And the clients thought they owned us because of how much money they paid. It was awful. I would never ever ever ever use prepaid legal services for anything other than maybe generic document preparation, like a power of attorney document or maybe closing on a real estate purchase.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ironically, I am a lawyer (big firm corporate type) who was just thinking last weekend about the need for a high quality type prepaid plan. I have not yet figured out the business model that would work - I hear stories like this and see a market need but am concerned about to execute on a high quality way. If anyone has had positive experiences or knowledge of what works and what doesn't - all ears here.

I was just reviewing this offering from our employer who is now giving it as a benefit for a small monthly fee. My observations as a consumer - I found it hard to believe that I was going to get actual decent legal representation for the monthly stated fee but felt that I could get decent legal advice to help me decide if I should pursue a legal case and if so how to find an attorney to assist me.

[Anonymous]

I participated in the employer sponsored prepaid plan and was not satisfied. I got a will out of it but when trying to find a lawyer to assist in a couple other incidents, they were disinterested, doing the bare minimum or trying to talk me out of pursuing a case that was later handled successfully by another fully paid attorney.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ironically, I am a lawyer (big firm corporate type) who was just thinking last weekend about the need for a high quality type prepaid plan. I have not yet figured out the business model that would work - I hear stories like this and see a market need but am concerned about to execute on a high quality way. If anyone has had positive experiences or knowledge of what works and what doesn't - all ears here.

That's funny, PP. I am a lawyer in Canada (educated and trained in the US) and I'm trying to figure out the same thing.

Just curious. Why is a lawyer in Canada interested in DCUM forums?