Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
What is a pre-paid legal plan and how does it work?
Instead of paying an attorney by the hour, you pay a small monthly fee (starting at $24.95) and have access to an independent attorney that will provide a huge variety of legal services without a huge legal bill. Services like consultation with an attorney, document review, drafting of debt collection letters and defense at civil trials are included as standard benefits. Using the plan just once can save you literally thousands of dollars. Watch the video on our home page for more information.
Using the plan is as simple as signing up and contacting our team. Once you’re a member, customer support will connect you with an independent attorney in your area who specializes in the specific legal issue with which you need help.
Will the plan really cover my specific legal issue?
Business Plans from internationallegalshield cover any and all legal issues. Many day to day legal issues are covered by the standard plan benefits with no additional fees. If your specific legal need is a bit more exotic and requires additional attorney support beyond the standard benefits, you can use your attorney to help you at 25% off their regular hourly rates. No matter the situation, you’re covered, at a substantial savings.
If you still have questions about coverage, please review either the Small Biz 10, 50 or 100 coverage details pages. If you prefer to speak to someone live, simply contact our customer support team to discuss your specific situation.
Does the plan cover pre-existing situations?
The short answer is yes. Most pre-existing situations are covered by your standard plan benefits. There are a few exceptions, such as trial defense services applying only to lawsuits that involved incidents that happened after you’ve become a member. If you have a pre-existing situation that is not covered by the standard monthly benefits, you can still get legal help under your 25% discount benefit.
If you have a question about a specific pre-existing legal situation, either review our member agreement (SMB 10, SMB 50 or SMB SMB 100) or contact customer support at 1.888.582.8927 to double-check.
How long after I join can I use the plan?
You can use your plan as soon as your membership application is reviewed and your account is set up. The review process takes 12 – 24 hours (or less) from the moment you purchase your plan (on regular business days). Once accepted, you can be in contact with an attorney in 4 hours or less and begin to use the plan benefits and member perks outlined in the membership agreement right away.
If the basic plan benefits don’t cover my specific situation, how much will it cost me?
When you need legal help that does not fall under the standard benefits, you can work with your attorney for 25% off of their regular hourly rates. How much will that cost in the end? The answer depends on factors such as the area of law, your geographic location and your attorney’s hourly rate. Without more information about your specific situation, it’s impossible to say exactly how much something may cost. What we can say for sure, is that if you are a member and work with your attorney under the discounted rates, you’re going to save hundreds if not thousands of dollars over hiring an attorney directly. The best way to find out exactly how much a specific situation might cost is to purchase a plan, speak to an attorney and then they can tell you the estimated costs. Consultations are included in your monthly fee and you can cancel your plan any time. So there is no risk.
Who are the attorneys I’ll work with?
While international legal shield does not employ the attorneys that provide the services to members, the international legal shield has a network of dedicated independent law firms across the United States made up of seasoned lawyers with an average of 22 years experience. The law firms in our network provide legal protection to over 4.1 million international legal shield members any time they need it, even in covered emergency situations, 24/7, 365 days a year. You can view the names and background information about the provider law firms and many attorney profiles in our Law Firm Finder.
How can you provide all these legal services for such a small fee?
If attorneys charge hundreds of dollars an hour, how can I receive hours and hours of legal services, document preparation, and trial defense, plus insane retailer discounts, for such a small fee? We get this question a lot. The answer is actually pretty simple.
We have had 4.1 million members. Most of them do not need legal help each month. As such, the fees we collect allow us to pay the law firms monthly to provide services to the members that do need it and still make a profit. Also, retailers want to partner with us to expose their services to our membership. You save. You get protected. The attorneys and international legal shield make a fair profit. The retailers get new customers. It’s a win-win win-win-win all the way around. Few things in life are that good. The international legal shield is.
Who is covered under the Business Plans?
It’s important to note that all of our business plans cover your business, not you personally. Each business plan allows you to designate a certain number of authorized spokespeople to work with our attorneys on behalf of your organization. Designated spokespeople must be employees, owners, partners or officers of your company. If you need personal legal help, check out out our personal plan
There is more information about this specific question near the top of the Coverage & Pricing Page.
How much money can I really save by using an international legal shield?
The average attorney in the US charges between $150 – $400 per hour. If you use your membership for even just a few hours a year you could easily save over $1000. If you have a bunch of small legal issues or one rather complicated issue, you can easily save multiple thousands of dollars over hiring an attorney directly. Not to mention the stress you’ll save by having an attorney on call instead of trying to handle legal issues yourself. Also, our attorneys often help our members recover thousands of dollars of damages, protect their business assets or avoid thousands of dollars in fees over what they would have experienced had they tried to resolve the legal issue themselves. Obviously every member and usage situation is different, but when used correctly, your membership can easily save significant amounts of money. Not to mention the savings you can get from our member perks, which can save you enough money to pay for the entire cost of your membership.
Will I work with the same attorney each time I need help?
As you may know, great attorneys tend to focus on one or just a few areas of law. You may not work with the same attorney if you have legal issues in totally different areas of law. However, you will always work with the same law firm. The international legal shield takes the selection of provider law firms very seriously. You can be assured that all the attorneys in the provider law firm that covers your location are experienced in their particular area of law and have many years of experience.
