We all know that hiring a lawyer could be very expensive. As an attractive alternative to hiring a lawyer, you could use pre-paid legal services. Prepaid legal services are similar to insurance plans, but instead of covering your health, life or home, pre-paid legal services cover your legal needs.

How do prepaid legal services work? Well, just like insurance plans, members pay a fixed monthly subscriptions fee and in return they have access to a range of legal services on-call. The legal services might cover simple tasks such as reviewing of legal documents, writing a simple will as well as more complicated cases such as divorce, trials, real estate issues and bankruptcy, etc. In this way, members of pre-paid legal services pay a fixed amount of money monthly to defray the expense of legal services provided in the future. Prepaid legal service plans might also cover the filing of motions and legal representation in court, but clients might need to pay extra fee for such services.

Pre-paid legal service plans have been sold in the United States since 1970's and in some states they are considered to be insurance and thus regulated by the state's insurance commission. Prepaid legal services is attractive to people who cannot afford to retain a lawyer on a regular basis.

There are some benefits of using pre-paid legal plans. First of all, they are cost-effective. The fees of hiring a lawyer can be very expensive, but the charge of pre-paid plans is more in line with health or home insurance. The second advantage of using a pre-paid legal plan is the simplicity in which the services are priced and furnished. When hiring a lawyer, it's usually hard to understand how they charge their clients, because there are a complicated set of fees involved, such as hourly rates, flat fees, contingency fees, and statutory fee, etc. However, with pre-paid plans, you just pay a fixed monthly fee and if the services are not fully covered, you will know clearly how much you will have to pay. In addition, since prepaid plans offer unlimited phone consultation, this can save you a lot of trouble in the future. Most legal problems can be solved if you take the necessary steps in line with the law. With good advices, you can avoid getting yourself into troubles.

On the other hand, there are a number of limitations to using prepaid legal services. First of all, usually there is a limit on the scope of the legal services that are covered. Secondly, there might be a restriction on your choice of attorney and the quality of the legal services provided.

When choosing a pre-paid legal plan, you should look to see exactly what services are covered. Ask if the service provider have an in-house procedure to handle complaints. Also, you need to make sure you select a plan that has clear guidelines as to how to settle dispute when they arise. In addition, it's important to do some background research on the provider to make sure it's competent and reputable.