Legal Services
To Access Legal Services: Call 800-305-6816 and have your member number handy.
1 in 2 families will require the services of an attorney. In many instances, legal issues are precipitated by other personal and professional challenges in one’s life. Mounting debt, tax season, substance abuse, stress on the job, or a personal crisis may be the catalyst for legal assistance. To help address these multiple needs, we’ve included a family protection plan. The plan provides members with access to a network of pre-qualified professionals in each of these major areas:
• Legal Care
• Tax Preparation & Advice
• Financial Education & Credit Counseling
• Identity Theft Solutions • LifeEvents™ Counseling
BENEFIT FEATURES
Our legal referral service is a nationwide network of plan attorneys who provide free and discounted legal care for over 1 million families. Membership includes you, your spouse or domestic partner, dependent children under the age of 25 and any dependents that may be living with you, such as a parent or grandparent.
The following nine (9) services are available at no charge.
• Initial phone consultations for each new legal matter (no time limit)
• Initial face to face consultations for each new legal matter (no time limit)
• Review of independent legal documents (6 page maximum per document, no limit to the number of new independent documents)
• Plan attorneys will prepare a free Simple Will for you and your family, as well as update the Will annually for free. (See definition of Simple Will in Section 3 of the Plan Guidebook). Alternatively, members have access to a more comprehensive and customized web based Simple Will
• A state specific, web based, free Living Will form is available to Members. This form can be notarized by a Notary Public
• Plan attorneys will help Members represent themselves in small claims court • Assistance in solving problems with government programs, such as INS and welfare
• When deemed appropriate by your plan attorney, he or she will write letters on your behalf (one letter per legal matter, with no limit on the number of new legal matters)
• When deemed appropriate by your plan attorney, he or she will make phone calls on your behalf (one phone call per legal matter, with no limit on the number of new legal matters) *In certain situations, attorney liability may require plan attorneys to ask for a retainer from the member prior to providing some of the free Legal Services.
DEEPLY DISCOUNTED LEGAL SERVICES**
The following are eight (8) commonly used legal services for which plan attorneys have agreed to charge a one-time, deeply discounted fee.
LEGAL SERVICES
• Traffic Ticket Defense
• Name Change
• Simple Will with Minors Trust
• Chapter 7 Bankruptcy
• Non-Support (Spouse/Child)
• Simple Divorce
• Regular Incorporation
• Personal Real Estate Closing
**Court costs, filing fees and time charged for travel to and from any courts are additional.
GUARANTEED LOW HOURLY RATE
Plan attorneys have contracted to charge no more than $125.00 per hour, or 40% off their usual and customary hourly rate, whichever is greater, for legal care that goes beyond the free and discounted services described above.
RETAINERS
In the case of extended legal care, plan attorneys may ask you for a retainer. Any retainer sought will be computed by multiplying the number of hours a plan attorney believes a case will take, by the plan’s discounted hourly rate. For instance; 10 hours x $125.00 = a retainer of $1,250.00. Any unused portion of the retainer will be returned to you
CONTINGENCY FEE DISCOUNTS
The contingency fee discount will be a 10% reduction of the state maximum rate or the attorney’s usual rate, whichever is lower.