Prepaid Legal Services/insurance Plan

From what I have heard, we thought for our first year at least it seemed worth it. From what I understand they really handle everything, you never need to be present and they specialize in doing this so they know what to do. So we thought our first year when it is most likely we could end up on a bad situation it would be worth it. Reevaluate at the end of that year see where we are at with our skills and decide then. Good drivers that don't speed most like will very rarely if ever need their services and you can hire them after the fact just a little more upfront, probably works out pretty similar.

I have a lot of trucker clients that have it, that is how they fight off their tickets and DOT violations, i have seden a lot of violations be DataQed

Anybody have one? From my understanding they take a few bucks a week and if/when you need an attorney they take care of finding some in the area the litigation will take place. If you have one what are the pros and cons?

I would think from a long term financial standpoint it's better to put that money into a savings account and use it for that purpose if/when you need it but just looking for opinions. I was quite surprised to see what attorneys are charging.

When I went through orientation they had a guy from LegalShield who I guess Specializes in covering drivers. It also covers your spouse or significant other. I was paying I think it was $24 a month. Then I got a call from them a couple months ago telling them they haven't gotten my payments from my company I used payroll deduction. So I called the HR person then he told me my company stopped using them because the lawyers weren't showing up for Court so we're going with another company. I never noticed it I guess they sent me an email but I didn't see it. Same price just different company.

It sounds like attorney fees for traffic issues are cheap (going by the $500 and $600 mentioned earlier in the thread) compared to the huge costs I've generally seen in other fields.

$25/month isn't much, but how often are we expecting to need the assistance of an attorney as drivers? Is this something we need to prepare for on a regular basis or more of the "just in case the worst happens" insurance scenario?

I had one of these plans when I first started driving, this was thirty years ago... It saved my bacon once, a $650 speeding ticket in OR. My reefer went out, middle of summer, frozen load, racing to get to ID on a weekend to the Thermo King dealer to get repaired. The sheriff nailed me at 70 in a 55, around 0200 in the morning on a weekend night. The only guys out there on the interstate were me and him. That was a lot of money back then, almost a weeks pay, just like today...

I no longer have one of these plans, but am seriously considering getting involved in one due to the increase in accidents and fatalities in our industry. We all play beat the clock now, including myself, everyone is speeding, if not on the road, in the truck stops, almost hit twice last night just weighing the truck in the TA in Dexter MI. I am seeing an increase in reckless and careless driving out here, and I know I am doing things I would never do, and an increase in screw ups on my part as I race that clock.

There are daily road closures in my area of travel, Detroit to Chicago and back, and way too many fatalities, another one yesterday, three this week that I know of involving big trucks just here locally. Last year big truck fatalities in Michigan were up 18%, and we are going to beat that this year, we are already past that in my observations.

I am still on the fence, but the way things are, I would not tell a guy to not sign up for one of these plans, as I am seriously considering looking in to one myself. Getting very dangerous out here.

Oh, that ticket, reduced to faulty equipment and a $35 fine.

Oh, that ticket, reduced to faulty equipment and a $35 fine.

they can no longer reduce traffic tickets for CDL Holders to a non moving offense. It's either dismissal or guilty/plea. I've been doing some looking into it more and actually considering doing it. Easier to budget a few bucks a week than getting hit with $600 especially just before the holidays. Thankfully we already did our shopping for the kids. The increase in accidents I've been seeing, along with other drivers or 4 wheelers doing real stupid crap worries me. I need to do some more looking into it but according to legal shield they will even cover pre existing issues and you can cancel any time. There must be some small writing in involved otherwise what would stop someone from paying $25 for their legal issue to be resolved instead of $600 and drop the coverage right after its resolved.

https://www.highya.com/legalshield-reviews

First—as with most things in life—you get what you pay for, and LegalShield is no different. Think of it this way: If you were required to hire a lawyer for a minor upcoming court case, it’s completely feasible to expect to pay anywhere from $5K to $10K, depending on a wide range of factors. With this is mind, the quality of legal services you could reasonably expect to receive for just $20 per month is fairly low. And, many of the online customer complaints we read referenced this specific fact more than anything else. So, if you’re expecting to receive personalized, responsive service from knowledgeable, highly rated firms for this amount, you may want to reconsider

Next, it appears that LegalShield has a relatively poor reputation for customer service. Most often, we read of difficulties encountered when trying to cancel plans, and service personnel who are more concerned about creating cumbersome processes than they are about solving problems.

Finally, when you consider that anything more than simple form-letter writing, a cursory review of your situation, or superficial advice (which may or may not be correct) will cost you much more than your standard monthly fee, using a LegalShield lawyer may be more expensive than hiring a lawyer direct. In fact, in one complaint we read, someone who claimed to have an immense amount of legal experience stated that you’ll be paying about 30% more overall.

With all this in mind, unless you’re looking for help with the most basic of legal services (which are often simple enough to handle yourself), you may want to think twice about joining LegalShield.