Chapter 3
Can Your Employees Afford Legal Help?
Besides the time spent away from work dealing with legal issues, employees without a legal plan spend a considerable amount on legal services.
The Harris Poll survey found that a legal plan is most commonly used for major issues:
- Car repossession (56% of those that experienced this issue required legal services)
- Bankruptcy (22%)
- Foreclosures (51%)
- Audits (45%)
Here are some typical costs of legal services paying for an attorney out of pocket:4
- Wills for Employee and Spouse: $580
- Contesting a Ticket in Traffic Court: $580-$1,160
- Home Refinancing $1,450
- Bankruptcy: $1,000-$2,500 (depending on type of bankruptcy)
- Foreclosures: $4,320
- Audits: $2,900
According to the survey, 40% of the people who used the service of an attorney spent between $1,000 and $5,000 on legal help and 10% spent $5,000 to $10,000. On average, group legal plan members pay less than $240 a year (around $20 a month) for unlimited use of the legal plan, which is significantly less than the cost of seeing an attorney just once for most legal issues.
[4] Based on the average amount of hours it would take, using the average hourly rate of $290.00/hour based on years of legal experience, National Law Journal and ALM Legal Intelligence, Survey of Law Firm Economics (2013).
QUIZ
If you were in a coma, would your family or doctor know your wishes regarding medical care?
Yes
No
No?
A living will speaks for you when you can’t speak for yourself. A legal plan provides access to an attorney who can draft this document for you.
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Great!
The next step is to designate someone as your healthcare power of attorney so they can make medical decisions for you. A legal plan covers the drafting of all powers of attorney documents.
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Because legal services are so expensive, people who have experience with legal issues, not surprisingly, are most likely to see the cost saving benefits of a legal plan.
He said it was going to be $1,200 but it wound up being close to $2,000 of my money that I had to spend to clear my name of a situation that I had no control over.
—Rebecca, 52, Contacted an attorney for Identity Theft
When I hired this attorney for my son, he did one court appearance and I paid him $2,000. Can you believe it?
—Gabby, 51, Contacted an attorney for a traffic ticket
74%
of those that have used legal services in the past five years believe having a legal plan can save them money, compared with...
57%
of those that did not have any legal issues.
Overall, a majority of survey respondents, 62%, said that having a legal plan would save them money if they ever needed legal services.
Legal Help Affordability Calculator
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Download White Paper
Improving Employee Wellness through Legal Benefits
In this white paper we will look at a significant cause of stress and financial hardship for your employees – legal issues. Research conducted online by Harris Poll on behalf of Hyatt Legal Plans, found that many Americans are not prepared to handle legal issues and would be interested in legal plans as a way to help them save money and reduce their stress about financial issues.
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