American Prepaid Legal Service Institute

API News

Legal Services Plan: More Business and More Clients

In efforts to heighten our visibility within the legal community, the API has been partnering with the GP Solo division of the ABA. With a large majority of the API members being solo practitioners, it only makes sense to foster and cultivate a relationship with this group - which will benefit everyone. With that said, GP Solo ran an article in their September newsletter, with contributions from our very own API President, Michael Maslanka, promoting our Universal Application program.

For more than 30 years, the American Bar Association (ABA) Standing Committee on Group and Prepaid Legal Services and its predecessor, and the American Prepaid Legal Services Institute (API) have worked to advance group legal services plans as a meaningful and economical method of delivering legal services to low and middle-income Americans. API has members in Canada and other countries, as well.

There are dozens of group legal services plans in the United States, resulting in numerous opportunities for lawyers to apply for and be added to the panels of lawyers providing the actual legal services for these plans. Working with a pilot group of such plans, the API and the Standing Committee have created the online Legal Plan Universal Application Portal, which allows a lawyer to apply to six legal plans at once. Lawyers simply fill out a single online application form, designate the plans they wish to apply to, upload and attach necessary documents (such as evidence of malpractice insurance and certificates of good standing), and click "submit." Lawyers who are members of several plans will no longer have to send a separate copy of their malpractice insurance to each plan administrator individually. If the administrator of a particular plan needs any additional information, it will contact the lawyer directly.

The Legal Plan Universal Application Portal can only be used by API members, but thanks to the ABA General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division's new partnership with the API, GP|Solo members currently receive a discount on API membership. Joining the API grants access not only to the application portal but also to the API's many other benefits. (For more details about the API and what it offers, please visit www.aplsi.org.)

Michael J. Maslanka, the current API president, and a former member of the Standing Committee, and a new member of the GP|Solo Division, confirms that the process really is easy. Maslanka reports that the application process through the API's online portal takes approximately 15 minutes. A lawyer with Sacks, Goreczny, Maslanka & Costello, P.C., in Chicago, Illinois, Maslanka has been participating in several types of legal service plans for 20 years. He became familiar with such plans when he joined a mid-sized firm that represented unions and employees of unions, which used prepaid legal services as part of their member benefits. He is a general practitioner, and he has found that his participation has definitely helped him to build his practice.

Maslanka once received a call from a new client on the same day he was approved by a plan and his information was posted on the legal plan provider's website. Learning how that plan works took only a short time, too. Each participating lawyer receives a plan handbook with instructions on the payment process, and coverage, and is advised on who to call for any assistance needed.

Despite the simplicity of this process, some lawyers might be deterred from participating in a legal services plan because they believe that the fees the plan pays will be lower than those they could privately charge a client, or that the fees will be set on a fixed schedule. But the payment structure is different for every plan. For example, ARAG, GE, Countrywide, Legal Resources, UAW, and Hyatt are just a few plans that have differing payment structures. It usually depends on the type of matter involved. Referral plans may require free consultations for the client; others may require you to offer a discount on your regular fee. (Maslanka also encountered a few instances where the plan didn't cover some of the requirements for a case, so the plan paid part of the fee and the client paid the balance. Most plan billing is completed online. Sometimes the cases are grouped, and you are paid semi-monthly.

Increased workload (high volume calls) is another area of concern that may deter some lawyers, or perhaps encourage some, from participating in legal services plans. Maslanka saw a gradual increase in his cases, and often sees repeat business or referrals from plan clients to their friends and family. The number of calls usually depends on your geographic location or legal specialty. If you are practicing in a niche area of law, you will be contacted as needed. If there are no other lawyers in the plan in your location, you will receive more calls. In urban areas, there may be multiple listings in your zip code. Essentially, you are letting the plans do all the marketing for you and the plans pay for it!

We urge you to visit the API website and decide if participating in a legal services plan is an opportunity that might be right for your practice.