Technology

It Takes A Village: Prepaid Legal's Contribution To Access To Justice

Legal plans suffer from a lack of awareness and understanding here in the U.S., but form an important solution for access to justice for many Americans.

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There is no silver bullet or disruptive technology for our access to justice challenge. The solutions include both piecemeal and incremental effort, but we must all pull in the same direction. Reactions to my ABA online articles on the LLLT program in Washington State have been mainly positive. However, the notion that a paraprofessional does not solve access to justice because the hourly rate is still too expensive for low-income Americans was raised repeatedly. This shows that the A2J problem is still not fully understood because it’s not just about those near or under the poverty line. We have a broad access to justice problem, often reaching those who make up to $100K per year. Therefore, this month we take a break from the series on paraprofessionals to examine another piece of the access to justice puzzle, prepaid legal or group legal services.

Like the LLLT program, around the country attorneys disparage prepaid legal or legal insurance. However, I also run into many attorneys and members of the public who do not know about these offerings. And I am not sure that these lawyers understand the plans and the benefits for consumers, businesses, and even attorneys. (Full disclosure: I sit on the Group Legal Services Association (GLSA) board, which also includes ABA Standing Committee on Prepaid Legal, and I also advocate for LegalShield.)

What is Prepaid Legal?

Prepaid legal plans are like health insurance or any other subscription for professional services. For a fixed monthly fee, citizens can access lawyers and legal services when needed.  The three largest private companies that offer legal plans (LP) in various forms are ARAG, Hyatt (a MetLife company), and LegalShield.  LPs have been around for over 50 years in various forms in the U.S., and just over 100 years in Europe. The LPs are mainly offered to individuals, either directly or through company benefits as a group, but LegalShield also offers help for new and small businesses. ARAG is more like a health plan, describing its product as legal insurance, with a monthly premium and in some cases, a deductible. Hyatt plans are solely group offerings sold to businesses for employees to access, often described as a voluntary employee benefit.

I recently spoke with leaders from the big three companies about access to justice though the LPs and the use of technology.  A thank you to Nicolle L. Schippers, ARAG’s Associate General Counsel and Legal Industry Advocate; Brian Caron, General Counsel & VP for Hyatt Legal Plans, a MetLife company; and Keri Coleman Norris, LegalShield’s SVP, Legal & Regulatory Affairs, General Counsel for sharing their insights.

Keri explains, “Our LPs focus on the services real consumers’ needs to protect their families and their homes by providing access to legal services in ordinary matters, and in emergencies.  We say, ‘from the trivial to the traumatic,’ we have you covered.”

Mary: Tell me about your company’s access to justice mission?

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Nicolle: ARAG is dedicated to ensuring all people, regardless of their income, have affordable access to resources for their legal needs. That is why we are out in the legal industry helping at state and federal levels to contribute to solutions and resources for 100% of consumers. Many times, moderate- to-modest-means people get overlooked when advocating for access to justice and legal plans are a perfect affordable solution for them.

Brian: We do not have an “access to justice” mission. Hyatt does undertake numerous charitable events and donations during the year, but nothing that can be described as access to justice.

Keri: LegalShield has always been focused on “access to justice” and always believed the words on the Supreme Court building “Equal Access for All” meant something. It is our 45-year history, and our future.

Mary: Although Nicolle shared than 45 million Americans have prepaid legal coverage, why do you believe that LPs have not reached a critical mass here in the U.S., like in the European Union (EU)?

Brian: Our legal system is different than the EU, which very well may have something to do with it, as well as the fact that the EU is a different way of life. For example, more paid time off from work and different employer benefits. LPs will continue to grow as they become more popular here in the U.S.

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Nicolle: Legal plans still are the best-kept secret in the United States. In other countries, legal plans are more commonly sold in group and individual formats and were historically connected to other insurance products like auto insurance, so Europeans consider it more essential coverage.

Mary: Is technology an important component of your LP?

Keri: Absolutely!  Technology is an important component of our future. We like to think our ourselves as a 45-year-old startup. LegalShield is committed to providing access to justice and making it better than ever with technology. Our unique mobile app puts a “law firm in the palm of your hand,” allowing our members to call their firm from their mobile phone, send speeding tickets or documents in from their app, or complete questionnaires to facilitate legal service. While we are excited about our history, we are excited about our agile approach to the future to tie legal service providers directly to clients through technology.

Brian: We are very security conscious at Hyatt, and are always looking for ways to improve efficiencies.

Nicolle: ARAG believes technology is a vital component of not only bridging the access to justice gap, but also helping lawyers and the legal industry evolve for the current consumer market, which is heavily driven by technology. Technology plays an important role in everything we do at ARAG, from building awareness of legal insurance with consumers and helping people find attorneys to making it easy for ARAG member to file claims and provide feedback about their experience with their attorney.

LP Impact on Lawyers

Unlike many other alternative legal services providers, LPs use attorneys. All the big three above have large attorney networks to serve plan participants. For lawyers, the marketing is basically done by the LP. For example, with LegalShield’s mobile application, the participants reach out directly to attorneys after they have been onboarded by LegalShield’s members service team. Therefore, the provider firms do not need to market or advertise because the clients are directly linked, plus the collections are done by LegalShield.

As Nicolle says, “Through GLSA, legal plans facilitate conversations between attorneys, bar associations, and legal plan providers about how we can support access to justice initiatives in their areas.”

From my experience over the past several years, LPs suffer from a lack of awareness and understanding here in the U.S., but form an important solution for A2J for many Americans. To avoid duplication of the existing solutions, the GLSA and its plan members need to lead the way on legal checkups, but work with the ABA and Legal Services Corporation access to justice efforts. However, a concerted awareness campaign would assist to reach the average American with the benefits of LPs. To that end, both ARAG and LegalShield will be at ABA TECHSHOW later this week in Chicago, and we’re also planning a Twitter rant with Legal Tech Network. Always happy to discuss these access to justice issues and others on Twitter @maryjuetten. #onwards

Mary E. Juetten

Mary E. Juetten lives on the West Coast, holds a J.D., and is both an American and Canadian professional accountant. Mary is passionate about metrics that matter and access to justice. She founded Traklight and Evolve Law and consults as an Access Advocate for LegalShield. You can reach her by email at [email protected] or on Twitter: @maryjuetten.

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