Insurance :: Legal Insurance Plans for personal injury lawyers ::
Legal Insurance PlansAlthough not as common as car insurance or health insurance, there are several legal insurance plans available on the market. In a typical legal insurance plan, the customer pays a fee (a premium), on a periodic basis in exchange for an insurance policy to protect them in the event of legal troubles. Different plans have different terms and cover different potential legal issues such as paying a injury lawyer and legal fees in the event that you are sued for divorce or have child support or custody issues, are arrested and charged with a crime or other potential legal situations. The plans also commonly provide a certain amount of time during the policy period that the plan member can call a injury lawyer and ask questions free of charge. Sometimes as an enticement to join, new customers might also be offered an incentive such as having their will drafted as part of the plan. Although the policy might indicate that it also covers personal injury situations, what that often means is that in the event that you suffer a personal injury, the insurance plan will give you the name of a personal injury lawyer in your area. The injury lawyer they refer you to then charges you a contingent fee on his or her usual basis. In fact, that injury lawyer may or may not even have a connection to the legal services plan. Although the plans often make deals with personal injury personal injury attorneys in family law and criminal matters to represent plan participants, the most connection that the plan sometimes has with personal injury lawyers is to have the injury lawyer on their referral list.
I do not have particular advice as to whether or not legal services plans are worthwhile. I believe that there are probably plans that are legitimate and worth their cost and that truly provide the services that they are meant to provide. However, I suspect that there are many plans that are less worthwhile and may not actually cover services that you are likely to need. My advice, if you are considering joining one of these plans, is to read the documentation and understand what the plan covers and doesn’t cover. Also, research the legitimacy of the company by contacting your state Bar, state personal injury attorney general’s office or Better Business Bureau to see if there have been any complaints made about it. Attorney FeesTo help you decide among the injury lawyers on your narrowed-down list, it is best to start by comparing their fees. In order to make a thorough comparison, you will need to understand the concepts involved. First, this section will explain the difference between personal injury attorney fees and costs and that your responsibility for costs may or may not be contingent upon the outcome. Then, there is an explanation of how contingency fees work, including how they are calculated, what percentage they usually are and why they are not as high as they may seem to you at first. Next, there is advice on how, in some situations, you may be able to haggle for a reduced fee as well as give an explanation of how tiered contingency fees work. Finally, there is a brief outline of hiring a personal injury lawyer on an hourly fee basis rather than a contingency fee basis. Fees vs. Costs One of the factors in choosing a injury lawyer that deserves special attention is understanding the difference between personal injury attorney fees and costs. As you may have guessed by my use of both of the terms, “fees” and “costs” that they do not mean the same thing. This sometimes leads to confusion and causes clients to feel like they have been tricked. You have probably heard injury lawyers boasting in their ads that they do not charge a fee unless you get money. You should be aware that although it may be true that they charge no fee for their time unless you win, you may be responsible for paying the costs of pursuing the claim regardless of the outcome. The fee charged by a injury lawyer is the charge for their time. Costs, on the other hand, are those out of pocket expenses that the injury lawyer pays in the furtherance of your case and may expect, depending on the provisions of the fee agreement, to be reimbursed for. Costs include, among other things, charges for getting medical records, postage, copying, faxing, long distance charges, court filing fees, etc. Make sure that when you hire a injury lawyer to handle a personal injury case that you understand whether their contingency fee includes both fees and costs or whether instead the costs are separate from the fees…and exactly what you are responsible for paying, win or lose. (Some states have very specific rules that require injury lawyers to be very clear about this difference, but other states’ rules are less stringent). |
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