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LegalShield

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5.6

Overall Score

Author: Kaitlyn Short

LAST UPDATED: March 15th, 2022

LegalShield, also known as Pre-Paid Legal, develops and markets pre-paid legal plans for legal services through a network of more than 6,900 independent provider attorneys across the U.S. and Canada. For a monthly fee, members can access law firms without having to worry about hourly bills. LegalShield's primary goal is to provide affordable legal protection for everyone who needs it. Among the best online legal service companies we have reviewed, LegalShield offers a variety of legal documents and are among the most affordable. At the bottom of this page check out some LegalShield reviews.

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The Good

  • Various Legal Services Available
  • 24/7 Emergency Service
  • Affordable Prices
  • Plan Options 
  • Experience
  • Mobile App
  • MLM Business Model

Various Legal Services Available

LegalShield offers a variety of legal advice so customers can choose a plan that best fits their needs. Also, LegalShield offers several products and services, like identity theft protection, real estate advice, divorce advice, speeding tickets, will preparation, and more.

Customer service has great reviews from consumers. A Resource Center is available 24/7 that provides definitions and explanations for difficult legal topics and legal matters.

LegalShield has made it very easy for members to contact a lawyer whenever they have legal questions or need legal assistance. Members are given a toll-free number to their Provider Law Firm.

24/7 Emergency Service

LegalShield wanted to ensure that customers could have access to their legal forms and service at any time. For this reason a LegalShield associate is available 24/7.

Affordable Prices

The cost for a LegalShield membership is broken down into four options, Personal/Family Plans start at $24.95 a month, Small Business Plan start at $39.00 a month, Commercial Driver Plan start at $12.95 a month, and Identity Theft Plan at $12.95 a month.

Personal/Family Plans- LegalShield offers unlimited legal advice, trial defense services, coverage for your family, and 24/7 Emergency Assistance for $24.95 per month.

An upgraded version of this Family Package will cost $44.95 per month but assists customers with moving violations, DOT violations, tragic accident assistance, Will preparation, IRS audit, and many other legal services.

Small Business Plans- This service provides small business owners with professional legal advice at a much lower cost. This package gives small businesses access to all LegalShield features starting at $39.00 per month. Price may vary on the size of the company.

Small business owners can't afford an on-site attorney but they also can't afford to not have legal advice. This saves companies thousands of dollars each year for access to all of LegalShield's documents, attorneys, and professional help.

Commercial Driver Plan- Commercial drivers tend to have unique questions when it comes to legal matters. The Basic Commercial Drivers Legal Package offers a wide variety of services starting at $32.95 per month. Upgrading to the Super Commercial Drivers Legal Plan costs $44.95 a month.

Identity Theft Plan- With thousands and thousands of hackers and scammers throughout the world, IDShield is a product created by LegalShield to protect individuals and families from the Dark Web and identity theft. It's individual IDShield Plan costs $12.95 a month, and for the IDShield Family Package it is $27.95.

IDShield immediately starts monitoring your ID and alerts you when there are suspicious issues with your ID. It has programs that search your credit records, public records, court records, the sex offender lists, address changes, payday loan, high-risk applications or transactions, and it also monitors your information that appears on the Dark Web. These features protect you from identity theft, the dark web, and credit card fraud.

This package is one of the most useful packages we have seen. Not only does LegalShield protect individuals from the law, but also protects from hackers, scammers, and identity theft.

Experience

On average, a LegalShield attorney has 19 years tenure in their profession and 13 years as a LegalShield associate. It has helped clients with almost everything that could require a lawyer. Everything from identity theft to a car accident, LegalShield can offer help in a variety of situations.

Mobile App

The LegalShield app gives customers access to all of their documents and files instantly. The app provides customers with the legal forms they need and getting answers to simple questions.

MLM Business Model

LegalShield is a Multi-Level Marketing business. This business model can be a good thing for those looking to make a little extra money. Sadly, it has been known to scare off potential customers. In the case of LegalShield, this business model has helps cut down on costs for legal assistance and provide competitive rates that other law firms can't offer.

Multi-Level Marketing is when customers of its product or services become brand ambassadors. Customers sign up for a membership and as they refer friends to join LegalShield they make money. Some people are scared of the MLM business model because there is a stigma that people who join only lose money or its all just a pyramid scheme. These ideas could not be farther from the truth.

Because each client is also a potential employee, LegalShield takes care of its members better than most of its competition. Customers clearly show their support in the reviews below. The LegalShield complaints are often particular and do not apply to the entire company but to a specific employee or moment. LegalShield's reviews are among the best we have seen in the online legal service market.

Put simply, this business opportunity does not force you to sell products but rather recruit friends and family to use LegalShield's services. The compensation plan is simply receiving a portion of the service price each month the person you referred is still a member (also called a residual income). In simple terms it is a glorified referral program. Customers just reap the benefits every month instead of a one time offer.

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The Bad

  • No Filing
  • No Free Trial
  • Enrollment Fee

While LegalShield does offer some beneficial services for a reasonable price, there are limitations as well. There is no testing period for potential clients which can create problems. There is also some missing information regarding important legal processes and whether or not LegalShield handles these cases.

No Filing

LegalShield does not mention whether or not it's contracted law firms will file legal documents for their members. However, LegalShield's lawyers will provide direction on how to do so.

No Free Trial

LegalShield does not currently offer a free trial to potential members, which does not allow prospective members to test the water before deciding if they should choose this company for their legal needs.

Enrollment Fee

There is a $10 one-time enrollment fee when signing up for LegalShield. New members are required to pay this fee and is non-refundable.

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The Bottom Line

For those who want to save money and want to feel like they have a personal attorney without paying a high hourly rate, LegalShield is a great option. Members can pay as little as $20 a month to have 24/7 access to a Provider Law Firm in their area.

This service is great if you have quick legal questions or need help completing legal forms. Among all customer reviews and responses, we have received, feedback has been positive. If customers find that they are regularly in need of legal representation, legal assistance, or specific legal advice, this is a great option. Not only do you have access to a lawyer at any given moment, but you can also make money as you refer people who also need legal advice.

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Star Rating

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3.9

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189 Reviews

Review Breakdown

5 grade

64%

4 grade

10%

3 grade

2%

2 grade

3%

1 grade

22%

Sentiment Criteria

Value

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Quality

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Chuck T Chicago, IL

I signed up when we were dabbling in rental properties. That didn't last too long, so Legalshield was only used for personal matters. Thankfully not a lot of those, but often I had a question on how something would affect my elderly parents, or something else I was associated with, but not a directly personal matter. They wouldn't answer those questions. Also, you can't 'easily' ask a general legal question. The phone screener requires a bunch of information about the person/company you are asking about - "general question" isn't allowed. They also require that you go through all your account and contact information with every new request. Doesn't matter that you just confirmed everything yesterday - have to do it all again if its a new request. A small thing I suppose, but an annoyance. In the end, I didn't get much value from it and cancelled.

4 years ago

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Reply from LegalShield

Chuck, thank you for taking the time to share your experience with us. We appreciate your feedback. We're disappointed to hear that you feel our services did not meet your needs. Our providers are committed to assisting our members with their legal matters. They will work diligently to provide you with the appropriate legal advice and actionable steps to take while strictly adhering to our membership contract of benefits. Understanding the full benefits of your LegalShield Membership is important. We have systems and resources in place for members to notify us if they are not satisfied with the services provided. We encourage all members with questions about their specific membership benefits or service complaints to contact our Member Services Team at (800)-654-7757 between 7-7 CST Monday-Friday, where a team member would be happy to provide support.
We want to thank you for your additional feedback on our intake process. We ask members to verify the contact information for each particular consultation request due to a potential partner/spouse utilizing the other's account rather than signing into their own and situations where users may want to use a different contact method. However, we have noted your suggestion and will address it with the appropriate teams as we are always looking for ways to create a better member experience.

Mar. 15th, 2022

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JLE Durham, NC

I'm a longtime member of Legal Shield (over 10 years) but I am reluctant to recommend it because of my experiences. I am dissatisfied with their service of providing attoney advice as a monthly membership. The plan works by allowing you to call a phone number for a local provider firm and then speaking to an attorney by phone about your legal matter and having them perform legal services for you. Don't get me wrong, the plan is a good value for the money and you get a lot. However, it has serious limitations that you need to be aware of if you choose to get it. Here are some problems I have come across. First, you get too much bad legal advice. I had one case where I spoke to attorneys to file two cases against a landlord and a moving services company. Advice was adequate to cover the case filing but they neglected to warn me to file against all of the parties involved. The outcome was that I couldn't collect on the judgement because the moving company didn't have property in its name. Had I questioned the owner and learned of his banks and other business names I could have collected. Case fail. I had another time when a tenant in an apartment complex retaliated against me for complaining to the complex about her noisy children who were loitering in the street outside my apartment. The mother falsely claimed that I was stalking her and the complex decided to get rid of me by filing for eviction on the false claim that I was a stalker. All through that case I followed advice from the provider firm to the letter yet when I was sued and filed to use my legal defense hours benefit the firm rejected my case as unlikely to win. I appealed to the state attorney general for help and the company reversed policy. The supervising attorney was sent to help me and attended the eviction hearing however he seemed to not spend any time on the stalking charge. The mother lied on the stand and the attorney didn't question and discredit her. I lost the case and ended up appealing and settling however it damaged my credit because it showed that the apartment complex filed to evict me. My most recent case was a fraud case. Their service failed to help with this one also. I called several times on this one and did talk to one attorney who was helpful but at it developed their managing attorney almost wrecked it. First, he said that they couldn't review the case because there was a 10 page document review limit. Next they said that they didn't have any attorney specialists that handled this area of law. Third, a supervising attorney told me, without even reviewing the case documents, that the case had no merit. I was able to find attorney specialists on my own but I expected for Merrit Webb to be able to do this for me. I also had a disability insurance case where they referred me to a local attorney. However, this attorney didn't bother to read my doctor's notes and did't strengthen the case by asking me to do a pain and fatigue journal and to have friends and family write letters about how impaired I was because of the condition. The case dragged out four years with a positive conclusion but it was hampered by the lack of initiative of the Legal Shield referral attorney. I've spoken with Legal Shield's corporate office and they have no interest in correcting these problems. Their stance is use the service if you want and if you don't like it then quit.

6 years ago

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Jacobk Miami, FL

Didn't meet my expectations! Had to close the account and stop subscription. Basically it;s not what they claim

6 years ago