Prepaid services give advice to working class
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Attorney Michael Fiffik of Welch, Gold & Siegel, which handles all Pennsylvania clients for Pre-Paid Legal Services Inc. The firm handles about 250 phone calls from within the commonwealth each day.
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Prepaid legal services, which were originally designed for working class families who couldn't afford traditional counsel for everyday matters, have emerged as a useful tool in the modern economy.
The services were created as a benefit that labor unions would negotiate for their members, but plans today can be obtained as an employee benefit or bought individually. Tens of thousands of Pennsylvanians subscribe to some form of prepaid legal services.
Under the plans, customers typically make monthly payments -- plans cost a few hundred dollars per year -- and in exchange, they have a law firm on-call. So long as the legal matter is covered in the customer's given plan, a lawyer helps for no additional charge.
"This has been happening for a while, but it's becoming a benefit that people are even more willing to explore," said Scott Lang of Pittsburgh's Scott Lang & Associates. "Pittsburgh is a perfect area for this, because Pittsburgh is a very grass-roots, hardworking, middle class town, and that's what this is about, really."
A Pittsburgh native, Mr. Lang helped create the business model for what has become the nation's largest provider of group legal plans, MetLife. MetLife's legal services are offered to Pittsburgh employees at businesses such as Giant Eagle, BNY Mellon, PPG and YMCA of Greater Pittsburgh.
Whereas pro bono help can be available to the poor and the upper class can afford traditional legal tabs, the working class sometimes has the fewest options when it comes to finding an affordable attorney.
"One of the problems the American Bar Association has always had is providing legal services to middle-income people," said Robert Dzik, president of the American Prepaid Legal Services Institute. Mr. Dzik also sits on a standing ABA committee that oversees group and prepaid legal services.
"People need legal services almost as much they need medical services, especially during difficult economic times," he said.
With enough clients, the revenue from monthly dues is enough to sustain legal help for those customers who end up needing it.
"Our members, collectively, are law firms' biggest clients, so they get the VIP treatment in term of quickness and responsiveness," said Leslie Fisher, vice president for Attorney Resources for Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc.
As Pittsburgh's middle class went through the recession, its participation in prepaid legal services grew to an all-time high.
"A lot of people are dealing with legal issues they've never encountered before, things like foreclosures, termination issues and unemployment as a result of the economy," Ms. Fisher said. "We say that our legal plan is a life-event legal plan."
First Published June 27, 2011 12:00 am
