The Importance of a Comprehensive Legal Plan

The list of incremental professional services required to solve a single legal issue can be extensive, often requiring months or years to resolve, and at great expense. Legal and related matters can take a heavy toll on people’s lives; this includes their personal relationships, workplace productivity, financial stability, medical health and mental health.

Distractions during the workday such as negotiating with a soon-to-be ex-spouse, calls from collection agencies, copying and scanning personal documents, calling and faxing banks, and many other such interruptions greatly reduce an employee’s productivity.  Here are some staggering statistics compiled by some of today’s leading experts in the employment industry.

Approximately 40 percent of all employees experience extreme stress over personal finances, which cause a measurable drop in their productivity. Workers can waste more than 20 hours of company time per month dealing with or thinking about personal finances. - Debt-Free America, October 2006

Forty-three percent of employees called in sick in 2004 when they weren’t sick at all. Careerbuilder.com, October 2005

According to various HR sources, many employees that are absent due to illness are not actually sick, but rather missing work to deal with personal issues such as haggling with landlords, foreclosure, mortgage refinancing, divorce, child custody, bankruptcy, civil lawsuits, identity theft, etc. In 2008, the cost of employee absence neared 36 percent of payroll, including costs for the wages paid to employees while absent, lost productivity or replacement worker and administrative expenses. ~ Mercer Consulting 

A comprehensive Legal Plan provides employees with access to professionals in a variety of fields to address the many issues that generally accompany a legal need. 
If a qualified professional is dealing with the issue, your employees will remain focused and productive in the workplace.

What to Look for in a Comprehensive Legal Plan

Coverage - When comparing legal plans, an employer will want to look for those plans that have adequate attorney network coverage to ensure that each member has access to a diverse group of law specialties and is able to confer with their assigned attorney face to face. Furthermore, it should be policy that the plan will recruit an attorney on the member’s behalf if one is not locally available.

Beyond Legal - The modern employee has related professional needs in the areas of finance, accounting, identity theft, personal counseling, etc. A truly comprehensive legal plan will provide access to discounted professional services that address all of these needs. Employers should seek a plan that provides access to an ample network of professionals in all the above disciplines.

Cost – Competitive pricing structure along with reasonable benefits expectations are a must.     

Limitations - Legal insurance plans usually have usage limitations, waiting periods and, most importantly, exclusions for preexisting conditions. These are in place to limit the insurance company’s financial exposure (e.g., payment of claims). Discounted Legal Plans do not have financial exposure to usage and can offer care to members regardless of when their legal need arises.  Most individuals will only seek legal care after a legal need surfaces thus creating a preexisting condition that would render legal insurance plans useless when needed most.

SOME FACTS TO CONSIDER:

• There are more than 100 million court cases in the U.S. every year1
• 78 percent of American adults do not have an updated will.2
• 50 percent of all marriages end in divorce.3
• 50 percent of residential real estate transactions involve a dispute.4
• Bankruptcy filings have almost doubled since 1990.5
• More than 10 million Americans are victims of Identity Theft each year.6
• 59 percent of men and 54 percent of women surveyed felt a group legal benefit would influence their choice of employer.7

In today’s business environment Group Legal plans prove a very valuable addition to any comprehensive benefits program. Employers and Employees are now more ”benefit conscious” than at any time in recent memory. Both the employer and the employee “win” from such an arrangement, each in their own way.

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For more information about Legal Club of America® and the valuable employee beneifits products we offer, please contact DRowe@legalclub.com

Donald A. Rowe is the Vice President of the Employee Benefits Divison of Legal Club of America. A 20 plus year veteran of the Employee Benefits industry, he works at Legal Club’s Home Office in Sunrise FL.  800.852-6829.

8 Harris Interactive

1, 2, 3, 4 American Bar Association

5 Department of Labor

6 Javalin Resource Group

7 Mercer Consulting