Some Thoughts on Prepaid Legal Services

A comment on one of last week's blog posts asked what I thought of pre-paid legal services (probably in relation to the post which focused on shooting to defend your life...a situation which is bound to require some sort of legal response in many jurisdictions).  My comments on this type of service are thus:

• I am all for the pre-emptive protection of your assets (in the form of insurance for life, health, auto, home, disability, etc).
• I am flat out against multi-level marketing businesses (except a few such as Amway and Avon).  Prepaid legal services are an MLM business and if it looks like a pyramid scheme...
• The average person should actually have very few reasons to need legal representation more than a couple times in their entire life (many legal processes can be done yourself such as uncontested divorces, Wills, etc).
• EVERYONE should have an emergency fund to cover unexpected expenses, legal or otherwise.
• Everyone should know a bit about protecting themselves from lawsuits (if you carry a weapon you should have a massive amount of training on how to use it.  If you drink you should not drive.  If you have a situation in your home or business that could cause a liability claim, mitigate it. Et al.)
• It's a good idea to know a few lawyers that you can call on with the odd question (or in the event you are in deep legal trouble).
• If you find that you are ALWAYS having legal problems either figure out why this is and correct the problem on your end or learn the legal process well enough to represent yourself (not highly recommended but I have a friend who has been in litigation for over a decade and he has done a fine job of representing himself--sans legal degree--in a situation that would have bankrupted the average mere mortal).