Security Service Federal Credit Union

Welcome

Benefits Proudly Offered to You

Be fully prepared and confident

with the Family Legal Access Plan

Learn about legal benefits, a smart option for your protection.

Product Administered By: Legal Access Plans

You deserve to feel prepared and confident when facing a legal matter. The Family Legal Access Plan is a robust product offering that protects members when it matters most. Legal Access has been putting people in touch with quality local attorneys and helping solve problems since 1971.

Family Legal Access Plan

The Family Legal Access Plan offers exclusive legal benefits. These include discounts, flat rates and covered services for common legal needs experienced by account holders. Telephone Consultations, Document Reviews, and a Legal Library are all included with this plan.

The Family Legal Access Plan is designed with complete family protection in mind. When an accoutnt holder enrolls in the Family Legal Access Plan, free coverage is extended to their significant other and all children up to age 22.

How Does it Work?

If and when a legal issue arises for a Family Legal Access Plan member, Legal Access Plans takes immediate action to match the right attorney for the member's specific legal matter. Legal Access Plans has implemented a process and the technology to greatly reduce the high costs and lost time when a legal matter arises. Legal matters can be stressful and Legal Access Plans is there to help every step of the way.

Coverage

The value of Family Legal Access Plan

Included Legal Benefits:

Telephone Consultation- One session up to 30 minutes per Legal Occurrence.

Document Review for many types of legal documents, up to 6 pages in length.

Guaranteed Reduced Rates – Members receive a 25% discount on Plan Attorney’s normal hourly and Flat Fee rates when legal representation is needed. (Does not apply to Contingency Fees)
A Legal Library, where you can find tips for preventing legal problems and lawsuits as well as resources for specific legal and financial issues.

Plan Rate

Your benefits include a special plan discount of 25% off of the attorneys' normal hourly rates for all covered services that do not have a special rate or any cost attached to them.

Telephone Consultation & Referral

Your free consultation benefit covers up to thirty (30) minutes over the phone with your Plan Attorney. The number of consultations is unlimited, except that each one must be on a different legal matter. Consultations are provided by the local Plan Attorney who is determined to be the best match for your needs by your Personal Access Specialist (PAS).

Document Review*

This benefit is available up to three times each year and can be used for documents that total six pages or less.

Dispute Resolution Calls & Letters*

If you and your attorney agree that such resolution will likely resolve your matter, you are entitled to have a phone call or a letter made by your Plan Attorney. This benefit is available up to three times each year.

*If you wish to utilize this benefit you MUST request it when calling our Customer Service Center for the initial referral. This benefit must be authorized prior to calling the Plan Attorney. If you decide after you have already received a referral that you need to utilize this benefit, you must call our Customer Service Center first. Plan Attorneys may not provide this service without authorization.

Definitions

Please read this section carefully to be sure of all of your benefits.

Consultation: Up to thirty minutes with a local Plan Attorney. The purpose of the initial consultation is to help you understand some of the issues related to the legal matter that has arisen. The attorney will explain to you your options and may provide general advice. The consultation is also the time in which costs of the legal matter are explained. Sometimes if a matter is a general legal question, a consultation may answer all of a member’s questions. Attorneys are not legally able to give personal opinions during a consultation, review or write documents, or instruct someone how to practice law.

Document Review: As part of the benefi ts, a local Plan Attorney can review a document. If the document totals more than six pages, the member will receive 25% off the attorney’s hourly rate, if an hourly rate is charged. If the document totals six pages or less, the document review, (attorney’s time) is covered under the benefi ts.

Discounted Hourly Rates: If a member needs to retain or use the attorney’s assistance beyond the consultation, they will receive a 25% discount off the attorney’s normal hourly rate. The Network of Attorneys is constructed of over 17,000 local practicing providers nationwide, each with over 10 years of experience, expertise and a solid local reputation.

New Legal Topic: Any legal matter not excluded from coverage under the terms of this Agreement, on which the member has not consulted a Plan Attorney, if said matter does not involve the same set of facts, or does not arise from the same set of facts, or does not involve the same or similar parties. It should be noted that Plan Members are permitted to access the service as often as they need, and Plan Attorneys will be available for assistance, for covered legal matters, but there may be a charge for these services and the defi nition of new legal topic may not apply. The defi nition of new legal topic includes the defi nition of new fi nancial topic set forth immediately below.

Initial Consultation: One phone consultation with a Plan Attorney and limited to up to one-half (1/2) hour per initial consultation. The purpose of the initial consultation is to determine the extent of the legal or fi nancial problem or matter that can be resolved by a Plan Attorney or to off er any assistance available by recommending a Plan Member take certain other actions. Plan Attorneys are not permitted to assist Plan Members in completing legal forms or documents during this initial consultation. Any Online system to off er initial consultations will be decided by the parties hereto at a later date,and re not included in this defi nition.

Excluded Legal/Financial Matters: This Agreement does not provide benefi ts for the following types of legal matters in any of the three levels of service-1) Preparing, completing or filing of federal, state or local tax returns. 2) Any action, proceeding or dispute between a Plan Member and his employer, or Plan Member and his fellow employees, a Plan Member and his union, or labor management trust fund, or a Plan Member and any other party when such coverage is prohibited by law. 3) Any legal benefi ts and/or coverage for any questions or problems involving the following types of legal matters: antitrust, business matters, securities law, environmental torts, administrative law, trademarks, copyrights, patents, or matters related thereto. Any member, who consults with a Plan Attorney and discovers that one of these matters is involved in their legal matter, and otherwise would be excluded from coverage under this Agreement, shall not be charged for the initial consultation with the Plan Attorney. However, if the member chooses to go forward on representation of any such otherwise excluded matter, the member will be responsible for all costs and fees associated with such representation beyond the initial consultation. 4) Duplication of services previously claimed and in relation to the same matter. 5) Any Citizen’s Dispute Settlement Program. 6) Filing fees, court costs, reporter’s fees and other miscellaneous costs in any proceeding. “Miscellaneous costs” are defi ned as service of process fees, investigative fees, expert witness fees, other witness fees, copy charges, telephone charges, supplies expenses and any other expenses incurred by any Plan Attorney, other than the Plan Attorney’s fees for legal services. 7) Any legal proceeding in which the Plan Member is entitled to legal representation or reimbursement for the costs thereof, from any source other than this Agreement whether or not the Plan Member perfects or exercises this right. 8) Frivolous matters are not included. A matter is defi ned herein as “frivolous” if the matter has no merit, is brought for the sole purpose of harassing, vexing, or annoying another party, or as otherwise defi ned by the code of Professional Responsibility of the state in which the Plan Attorney is handling the matter for any Plan Member. 9) Any action against the Plan (Legal Access Plans), the EAP, the Plan Attorneys or any of their parent, subsidiaries, partner, employees or directors, or other third parties under contract with the above-mentioned parties, including but not limited to any EAP Client Organization. Also, no actions will be permitted against the Company, or any of its affi liated companies, or any of their parents, directors, offi cers, agents or employees.10) Any action that Plan Attorney feels may be in confl ict with his/her ongoing practice, as defi ned in the Code of Professional Responsibility of the State Bar of the state(s) in which the attorney is licensed. As an example, one state’s Code of Professional Responsibility, in relevant part, states: “A lawyer who has not formerly represented a client in a matter shall not thereafter represent another person in the same or a substantially related matter in which that person’s interests are materially adverse to the interests of the former client unless the former client consents after consultation.”

Network

About the Network of Attorneys

When going in for surgery, you don’t want a surgeon that has a poor track record or only a couple years experience. We feel that a legal need is just as important.

Help Focus Infrastructure

When it comes to finding an attorney, an employee can waste days looking for the right one, even with a legal plan. Our process has a Help Focus Infrastructure. We focus on our relationships with our Providers to help us help your employees, faster. Our Attorney Match Technology and dialogue with attorneys and members ensures the right help the first time. Matching an employee to the right help expedites solutions while saving time and stress.

Standards and Qualifications

The credentialing standards that we utilize to vet our providers is the most stringent in the country. We focus on years of experience, as well as insurance and discipline, as well as penalty of perjury submissions with extensive back ground checks.

Under the Provider Network, your employees will receive legal help from professionals with many of these service characteristics:

Experience in the Legal Matter Needed
Quality Time Spent in Consultations
Years of Legal Training and Experience
Up-to-date Legal Training Each Year
Lawyers Who are Service-Oriented
Lawyers Who Have a Solid Local Reputation in their Communities
Exceptional Backgrounds
Years of Courtroom and Trial Experience

Provider Standards of Care

The Network Provider shall strive to provide the highest quality of legal representation and service to Plan Members.

Plan Providers agree to the following:

To comply at all times with the Rules of Civil Procedure and Criminal Procedure and the Rules of Professional Conduct applicable to the jurisdiction.
To return member's calls promptly, within one business day, and communicate with members such that a member and the member's family do not voice substantiated concerns over promptness or frequency of your or your firm's communication.
To not enter continuances, adjournments, or the like without the member's comfort and consent.
To not arrange for substitutions or stand-ins unless the member has been previously advised and that the member understands that you remain responsible for the case and to contact you if there is any concern or if proceedings do not go as planned.
To always respect a member, their needs and family.
To maintain a professional office, in staffing and appearance.
To fully explain yourself such that a member has an understanding for the reasons behind your recommendations and suggestions, even if a member may not hire your firm.
To not complete any additional work that will result in a fee to the member, where not covered by the member's plan, until a fee arrangement is fully understood by the member and there is a written agreement.
To help each member individually and ensure that everything you do is in the interest of the member.
To notify Legal Access Plans if there is or may be the possibility of a conflict of interest or violation of ethical codes.
To notify Legal Access Plans if there may be a misunderstanding or potential service issue where there may be a complaint without breaking any client confidences.
To direct any grievances or concerns, such as process procedure or billing, to Legal Access and not a member.
To not refer any member to another attorney without the knowledge and consent of Legal Access if you cannot assist.
To take responsibility and uphold the highest standards of customer service delivered by any and all firm staff or employees that have interaction with members.
To communicate and cooperate with Legal Access Plans on any concern, inquiry or issue and return any communication from Legal Access within one business day.

About

We are here to serve you...

We believe people deserve to have a sense of safety and security, a peace of mind, when it comes to being protected in legal matters that they may not be the experts in. To have access to legal professionals that can ease and solve their legal burdens. We are here to serve you.

How we do it is by providing an in-depth pool of resources to accommodate all your legal needs. Legal Access and LegalEASE have broad experiences with employees in small, medium and large companies in the public and private sectors, local, state and federal government offices, unions, employee assistance plans, work-life companies, and organizations, when it comes to solving your legal matters.

What we do is provide value by creating unparalleled access to a network of skilled attorneys to cover your legal needs with options in convenient plans. We are a diversified employee benefits company engaged in administration, network development, technology management and insurance, based in Houston, Texas. Since 1971, we have grown from five attorneys in Los Angeles providing services to a modest amount of companies into a company with the strongest attorney network across America. We provide assistance to members over half of a million times each year throughout the United States and the world.

Legal Access Companies consists of several companies and brands to best meet customer needs, including but not limited to: Legal Plans USA, Legal Access Plans, LegalEASE, and LAMG. Legal Access Plans has a wide array of products across several market segements, including worksite, employee assistance and worklife.