When you subscribe to any pre-paid legal service you will likely communicate with an attorney and numerous of people and organisations who are apart of the service in one way or another, it is very important for you to understand the role of each party within a legal service plan, especially if you are unhappy with the service or if a fee dispute arises or any other possible litigation with your provider comes up.

So, who is involved in your pre-paid legal arrangement?

You're Lawyer

You get to choose your attorney from a pool of attorneys in the network. 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 are one of those individuals that benefits from a legal service under a group plan scheme then there will be a number of parties who are involved in this scheme. The first would be the contracted firm, just as would be the case with an individual plan, is the one that will provide you with all the legal help through its network of attorneys. There are also two specific parties in the deal: a plan sponsor and plan administrator.

A plan sponsor is the organisation 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.

The plan administrator is the individual who is appointed by the plan sponsor to arrange the panel of lawyers to provide services from the contracted firm, collect all feeds that are paid into a pre-paid plan publicise this plan and handle all marketing and enrolment. The administrator could be an employee of the plan sponsor, possibly an insurance company or some other outside firm.

Regulating Authority

Authorities that regulate pre-paid plans provide you with an outline of how pre-paid legal services are managed and also 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 happen to be an employee who's participating in a group plan which is funned by your employer, then all the legal services will be covered and regulated under the deferral Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).