Pre-paid legal services

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This article is about the legal term. For the company, see Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc..

Pre-paid legal services refers to individual or group employee benefit legal plans in which members pay a monthly fee in exchange for access to a range of legal services on-call. Pre-paid legal plans typically offer certain services for a fixed monthly charge such as legal advice and consultation, review of contracts, having a lawyer write a letter on a client's behalf or the drafting of wills and other legal documents. Legal service plans may also cover legal representation in court and the filing of motions but most plans require a client to pay extra for such services or cover a limited number of hours in court time.

The pre-paid legal service industry has existed in Europe for over 100 years, since 1907 [1], but is a relatively recent phenomenon in the United States. Legal plans have been sold in the United States since at least the early 1970's. While some market services via independent associates (who often specialize in a specific area), most "legal-care" companies offer their services through insurance agents (as part of their portfolio of services), through salaried staff or through independent agents working on commission.

In some states, pre-paid legal service plans are considered to be insurance, and are regulated by the state's insurance commission; in these states an individual must obtain an insurance license from the state before they are able to market memberships.

As of 2000, an estimated 122 million Americans had some some form of a legal service plan.

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