Review of Legal Club of America

As a business owner, I purchase memberships in several business related associations. One of the benefits of an association that I belong to is legal coverage for my small business through the Legal Club of America. Since I often have questions and issues related to the law, I thought that this was a great benefit to have.

As a member of the Legal Club of America, some of my plan benefits privileges are as follows:

Attorney Provided Services Free Services:

- Unlimited phone consultations for all new legal matters.

- Attorney review of 5 independent documents each month. (10 page maximum each)

- Initial call made on behalf of your business. (2 per month)

- Initial letter written on behalf of your business (3 per month)

- 10 initial collection letters (10 per month)

- In-person consultation for any new legal matter (30 minutes maximum)

Registered agent for your business (in the state where you were incorporated)

However, somewhere in the Legal Club of America's business model, there is a disconnect. After three weeks of membership in the Legal Club of America, my experiences were as follows:

After three weeks and a total of 8 messages, I was never able to receive a return phone call from the Law Offices of my legal club representative. After contacting another one of the legal club representatives, I received a response.

After sending the background information to the attorney, he replied indicating that he had no idea how to proceed.

***********************Below is the actual email from the attorney**************

From: xxxxxxxxx, Esq.

Sent: Thursday, July 12, 2007 11:22 AM

To: 'JC Lamkin'

Subject: RE: Follow-up: Legal Club of America - xxxxxx call

Ok..once I know that I get paid to do the call, I will do it

******************End of actual email from the attorney*************

It would appear that the attorneys who partner with Legal Club of America do not read their own contracts. So, they do not have a clear understanding about their payment schedules, etc.

When I called Legal Club of America and asked if they kept a record of feedback from customers that would indicate which attorneys were responsive and which were not because if they had kept a record, they would know not to recommend attorneys who did not understand the Legal Club of America's policies. The customer service representative indicated that "No, they do not keep those type of records." All she could tell me was what attorney was close to my zip code.

With the amount of time it took to identify an attorney who would be open to even looking at my papers, I could have gone to law school and conducted the review myself.

Three out of the eight Legal Club of America attorneys were helpful and actually did honor their agreement to do a free consultation and/or review independent documents. Needless-to-say, if you are in a hurry to receive legal advice, I would not recommend contacting the Legal Club of America.