Pre-paid Legal

We have used their services for a long time on different small issues (ie. phone company making wrong charges etc..). No problem at all. They solved some issues in a very quick, professional and efficient manner. It worked for us.

I would NOT recommend it!! I am in Oklahoma and their corporate offices are located in Ada,OK so we see and hear alot about them. We are saturated with people trying to sell it and sign people up. (The big stink here is that they are a pyramid or ponzi-type scheme.) I think one of their selling points is if you sign up you get a free will. By law here, you can do your own will and it is legal.

Personally I don't have any experience with them but 2 of my family members have. It's kind of like insurance-you find lawyers that work within the Pre-Paid Legal network. One of the things they "promise", so to speak, is you can get lawyers for a discounted or cheaper rate than if you were to get one on your own. Not the case!! In two instances my family members needed an attorney and contacted PPL attorneys. They both got considerably cheaper hourly rate quotes from the 'non" PPL attorneys they contacted. Needless, to say they both cancelled their subscription to PPL after this.

Google or Bing them: here's just a small sampling of what I found:

Pre-Paid Legal Services Inc. in the News Pre-Paid Legal’s Inspection Expands (The Oklahoman- 3 days ago) ADA — Federal regulators have expanded an investigation into Pre-Paid Legal Services Inc., demanding the company supply more documents, including information on recent resignations of two insiders, the Ada company disclosed Thursday. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission delivered a subpoena Tuesday to Pre-Paid, seeking documents regarding customer complaints about Pre-Paid’s provider law firms, the business’ efforts to comply with payment card industry requirements and the resignations of Harland C. Stoneciper as CEO and president and Tom Smith as director, Pre-Paid said.

The SEC in October ordered Pre-Paid to produce documents related to its marketing practices, stock buy-back program, segment reporting, membership statistics, Federal Trade Commission contingency disclosure "and other operational practices,” the company said at the time.

Pre-Paid sells monthly subscriptions to a package of limited legal services and an identity theft program through a multilevel marketing network of independent sales associates. Those associates earn commissions through their sales and sales made by people they recruit into their network.

The Federal Trade Commission has been investigating Pre-Paid for more than a year. In November, the company disclosed that the FTC has alleged Pre-Paid made misleading claims in the marketing of its identity theft products.
Read more: http://newsok.com/pre-paid-legals-inspection-expands/arti...

Pre-Paid Legal gets another subpoena (Tulsa World- 3 days ago)
Pre-Paid Legal Services Inc. on Thursday announced that, as part of an ongoing inquiry, it has received an additional subpoena from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

SEC subpoenas Pre-Paid Legal Services Documents (News On 6 Tulsa-3 days ago) Associated Press - April 15, 2010 4:25 PM ET ADA, Okla. (AP) - Pre-Paid Legal Services Inc. says the Securities and Exchange Commission has subpoenaed documents tied to customer complaints and the resignation of its CEO, among other issues.

The Ada-based legal services company said Thursday the SEC also wants documents on membership information, efforts to achieve compliance with payment card industry requirements and the resignation of Tom Smith as a director.

I think it all depends on what your needs for legal services are. I worked for an attorney for a number of years and he was a participating provider of legal services for certain things with one of the plans. The only difference in 'service' is that the billing is sent through your provider, and the attorney is reimbursed through your provider, depending on exactly how the particular plan is structured. The actual legal services are the same. So if you know that you will be using some legal services coming up it can be a great idea, if the services you will be needing are a covered service and the premiums aren't more than the outright fees would be. If you don't generally foresee yourself using legal services, then it is probably a waste. It is a lot like insurance like the previous poster said. Only your are more likely to need health care than legal services, generally speaking.

I have no knowledge of this personally, but my aunt who has a law degree recently posted on Facebook that this is a scam. Please do a LOT of research before deciding to do this.

I used Pre-Paid Legal Services when I was getting scammed by a moving company. They wrote a nasty letter to the company who finally did right by me. I was very happy with PPL's services.

I don't. But there's a lawyer who does a call-in radio show on KGO everyday at noon at 810 on the AM dial from noon to 1. I've heard him advise people not to engage the services of the kind of pre-paid plans you're asking about. You might want to give a listen to his show and possibly call him yourself. The guy's funny and friendly and he dispenses tons of free legal advice. You'd probably find it interesting. His name's Len Tillum and he's on KGO everyday and on Sundays from 4-7PM as well.

We joined the group legal plan from my husband's work... is this the type of plan that you want to join? If so, check out the list of "covered" legal services so you know what you are getting. It's just like a medical HMO group plan... a list of participating lawyers, a list of services, flat copayments, etc.

We enrolled to have the lawyer handle our mortgage, our will and adoption process. The only things we paid were copayments (similar to an HMO type of payment) and government filing fees. We were very happy with the services and low costs.

I'm happy with it though I have not had to use it much. My calls are returned promptly. I have not had a bad experience.

I have had experience and was signed up with them for a period of time. NO I do not recommend this unless you do not have any other options. First off, they want you to do their work for them and secondly, the attorneys they work with are not from this area but in the Los Angeles area. They give you a Will upfront for fee but it is so generic that I actually redid mine on my own after cancelling with them.
You are better off contacting attorneys in the area and getting on by referral from friends than going through this company.
If you need an attorney, I can recommend a personal injury attorney I work with right now - Curtis R. Namba ###-###-#### and he handles DUI, Bankruptcy, Wills, Business as well and has connections to many other attorneys if needed.
Good luck

I'm attending college to become a paralegal and I heard about this type of service. They are considered a bit of a scam. In my 47 years I have never consulted a lawyer. Why would be prepay for something that you may never need?

I was with PPL for a few years. Used them a couple of times. It's just like insurance - you pre-paid for something you may or may not need. (Just to vent - paid my auto insurance faithfully for 10 years and now they are screwing me - so why not join all the other uninsured people!)

I agree with Victoria W. We basically just used it to get our wills done. The other thing to consider is that you can't pick your lawyer.
Victoria