April 6, 2009
Justice For Allby Richard Hamlin, Pre-Paid Legal Services Member and Associate
Justice for all is a nice idea, but does it really happen in our courtrooms when lawyer fees seem to be outside of the average person’s budget? Can the door to justice in a free society really close? The majority of injustices never find their way into the courtroom. As life goes on around us, there are many times when unfairness rears its ugly head. The examples are limitless:
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- a company denies or ignores a warranty claim on your purchase;
- your utility company overcharges you or terminates your service without notice;
- your credit card company hikes your rate without apparent rhyme or reason;
- your airline cancels your flight but doesn’t refund your ticket price;
- your employer lays you off unfairly or for apparent discriminatory reasons;
- someone steals your credit cards and charges up a storm on your account;
- you get a speeding ticket for doing 50 in a 35 zone, when you know you were actually doing about 39;
- you get stopped at midnight for a defective tail light, the officer wants to impound your vehicle until it’s fixed, and you’re 500 miles from home;
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- you receive, by complete surprise, an urgent demand for payment of a bill you knew you had paid in full six months ago, with a threat to take you to collection if you don’t pay it immediately;
- your spouse gets hit in the face by a broken bathroom door in a restaurant, receiving facial damage, and the manager expresses sympathy but says there is nothing he can do about it;
- you return to your car to notice a dent with green paint on it and the car next to yours is green with a mark that looks like your paint on it;
- someone drops off an accident-damaged vehicle with airbags blown and windows broken in front of your house, and you don’t want that eyesore there;
- kids are jumping over your fence, gradually damaging it, and cutting through your yard after school gets out, and you don’t want to get a reputation as Scrooge by yelling at them yourself.
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When it happens, perhaps we tell a few people, get plenty of free advice, procrastinate, but sadly, most of us feel forced to take it on the chin, and then try to move on, while still harboring the bad memories.
It doesn’t have to be that way.
More than 35 years, ago Pre-Paid Legal became a pioneer in the legal industry, and today provides access to justice for common, and not so common, life events to over 1.5 million members. In 2004, I was introduced to Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc., and signed my family up as a member for $25 per month plus $1 extra for the 24-hour coverage, and have used our provider law firm’s services for a number of the actual examples noted above. As long as I never allow my membership to lapse, the membership fee will remain $26 per month. Those that came in back in 1985 are still paying $15 per month.
Your provider law firm will prepare your will for free, and your spouse’s will for just $20. Then, each year, they are willing to update the wills for both of you on the same basis. Traditionally, will preparation can cost from several hundred to several thousand dollars each person, but not for our members.
"Note: If you are paying $26 total per month, as I am for my family, that’s $312 per year. My provider law firm’s standard hourly rates for non-Pre-Paid Legal members range from $175 to $300 per hour, depending on the attorney assigned. We don’t pay that. We just pay $26 per month. I typically seek their help and advice about a half dozen times each year. I don’t sign a contract with anyone without their seeing it first. The airline example above was our two $289 tickets to New Orleans with Continental Airlines just before Katrina knocked out the airport there. My request for a refund only produced two $5 refunds. Our Pre-Paid Legal attorney’s letter helped me get the rest."
Richard Hamlin, 203-276-9330, email: info@RichardHamlin.com
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