What's the difference between a lawyer and a boxing referee? A boxing referee doesn't get paid more for a longer fight.
Okay, we get it—lawyers make easy targets for jokes. They are expensive, seeming at times to care more about billing than taking care of people. Forbes even writes, “It’s OK to hate lawyers.”
Consider this: The New York Times cites a recent global study that ranked the United States as the 65th in the world for the accessibility and affordability of its civil justice (tied with Botswana, Pakistan and Uzbekistan). The Washington Post recently reported that “in 70 to 98 percent of cases in America’s civil courts today, one or both parties are not represented by a lawyer.”
The challenge is not that we need fewer lawyers in the world, but cheaper ones. That’s no laughing matter.“To address this failure, LegalShield has disrupted the legal industry through the power of collaborative consumption,” states Jeff Bell, CEO of LegalShield. “LegalShield has united 1.5 million households in North America to collectively pay for legal services for the entire group. When any individual member calls an attorney, they are treated the way that they should be: like the most important client at the firm.”
That is a feeling that Larry Smith knows very well. A former corporate president over the U.S. division of a global firm, Smith had only used an attorney once before joining LegalShield and said he “did not like the experience.” However, since joining, Smith has used his attorney dozens of times over the past two decades. He now loves to refer prospective members to the “101 reasons to use LegalShield.”
“Right after I joined LegalShield, I took a ring to a jeweler and he ruined it. I spent 45 minutes on the phone with an attorney, she made a call to the jeweler, and the same day I picked up a check for over two thousand dollars,” Smith says.
Smith has used LegalShield to do everything from fighting a fraudulent lien placed on his house, to securing a reimbursement for clothes destroyed by a dry cleaner, to defending himself against a false collection notice, to securing a better rate on his cell phone service. In almost every instance, Smith just needed to have a brief conversation with his LegalShield provider law firm and they would send a letter on his behalf. And almost every time, that was all that was needed to resolve his legal matter.
Smith estimates that over the years, his LegalShield lawyers have helped him recover tens of thousands of dollars.“ At $250 per hour, I am not going to make the call to a lawyer. But at $20 per month, I won't hesitate to call,” says Smith.
“The reason people don't use attorneys is they think they are too expensive. It's not that they don't need it, it's that they can't afford it. ”Bell argues, by offering an affordable monthly membership, LegalShield “enables our members to access attorneys without worrying about the clock. This aligns both our provider law firms and our members around the same goal: finding a fast, efficient, and effective resolution to legal matters.”LegalShield is not only disrupting the legal field, it is rewriting the attorney joke book.
Written and maintained by the LegalShield content team, covering legal and identity protection topics for individuals, families, and small businesses.
En Estados Unidos, un divorcio sin oposición generalmente cuesta al menos $1,500, mientras que un divorcio con oposición puede empezar en $5,000 y superar los $20,000 en casos complejos. El costo total depende de los honorarios de abogados, los costos judiciales y el nivel de conflicto entre los cónyuges.
Decidir tramitar el divorcio ya es bastante difícil sin tener que preguntarte si estás llenando el formulario correcto. Cada estado maneja el proceso de manera un poco distinta, y es normal sentir dudas acerca de dónde empezar. Reunimos información sobre lo que puede suceder durante el trámite, incluyendo perspectivas de una abogada de verdad, para darte más claridad en este camino.
La mayoría de nosotros sabemos que deberíamos tener un testamento. Simplemente seguimos encontrando razones para posponerlo. Si eso te suena familiar, no estás solo/a. Sigue leyendo para aprender qué puedes hacer al respecto.
Prepararse para un divorcio implica reunir documentos financieros y personales, hacer un presupuesto de tus gastos mensuales, asegurar tus cuentas digitales e inventariar tus bienes. También es importante decidir qué tipo de divorcio se adapta a tu situación y consultar con un abogado antes de presentar la petición para proteger tus derechos.
¿Necesitas un poder notarial pero te preocupa el costo? Es natural preocuparse por pagar servicios legales, pero es importante no quedarse atrapado/a en dólares y centavos. Después de todo, no le puedes poner precio a la tranquilidad, y eso es exactamente lo que ofrece un poder notarial.
Ya sea que te estés casando, pasando por un divorcio o simplemente estés listo para un nuevo comienzo, cambiar tu nombre es un gran paso. Puede ser un proceso sorprendentemente difícil, y las tarifas varían mucho.
Planificar el futuro de tu familia toma tiempo y reflexión. Una herramienta que puede ayudar es el fideicomiso familiar: un arreglo legal que te permite decidir cómo se administra y se comparte tu propiedad con las personas que te importan.
A veces la gente tiene reacciones emocionales fuertes a la palabra "prenupcial" porque sienten que su pareja no confía en ellos. Pero un contrato prenupcial trata de establecer confianza y justicia. Puede ser una forma prudente y cariñosa de comenzar un matrimonio. Un contrato prenupcial es una manera en que dos personas resuelven cómo manejarán el dinero y los bienes antes de decir "acepto".
