It’s that time of the year again, open enrollment time. It’s the one time of the year you are allowed to switch insurance plans or add a new benefit, including the introduction of new benefits your employer offers. Our window doesn’t open until November, but management released a memo detailing the upcoming changes. One new benefit looks interesting - group legal.
The memo is short on details, but for less than $200 per year you get a variety of legal services. My question – does this cover all associated legal fees or only a percentage? I’ve had the unhappy misfortune of needing a lawyer, it’s a story I’m saving for another time. And from that experience I know $200 wouldn’t even cover an hour’s worth of a lawyer’s time. Mine cost the princely sum of $350 an hour, the case ran over $8000, which I had to pay upfront. It was worth it, and in fact I still needed his services. But at that point I wasn’t sure I’d recoup his cost, so I let him go. I’m curious if I can still go after the money I am owed.
The memo says it covers debt matters (hope I never need it), defense of civil lawsuits (sadly the most likely possibility in our sue happy land), and document preparation like wills, trusts and estate planning. The wills and trusts will definitely come in handy in the next few years as we get married and start a family. On the surface this seems like a pretty good deal - you probably won’t need legal help every year, but even occasional legal support is expensive. Or it might be a waste of money.
It appears similar to any other insurance plan, where you hope for the best but prepare for the worst. Litigation is always a threat to your financial security and in America, people will look for a way to sue you. Perhaps protecting yourself with “legal insurance” is a smart idea. Anyone have a similar workplace benefit? What is your experience, is it worth it?
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3 comments:
It's definitely NOT worth it. My company offers that benefit as well, and I remember when I joined they actually had a rep come and explain it at our benefits overview. Seemed like a total scam. Besides you may already be covered for this under your medical, home, or auto insurance.
And even if you aren't, you'd probably want to pick your own attorney if you do need one in a case of divorce, DUI, or other matter - one who is from your city and specializes in that area. The attorneys you'd get under a plan like that are going to be inexperienced and unspecialized in general.
We have it at my work.
Whether or not it's worth it depends on what the plan itself covers and what you may need. For example youre getting married - maybe you'd want to sign up for a year and get your prenup (haha) or wills done.
Or if you know you are going to adopt. Or you have a soon to be crazy driving teen prone to traffic violations.
You have to pick from a network of lawyers similar to a health or dental plan.
My impression of it is that is is a decent deal for simple basic things you know you are going to need. I don't think its a good value for the what-ifs but again thats a personal decision.
Not worth it, just a plan to get you to hire them at reduced? fees.
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