Posted by JanetK_CA on 7/19/11 5:24pm
Msg #390226

Prepaid legal trying to recruit notaries - again...

I just got my umpteenth call from someone who said she heard that notaries are always talking to people who need legal advice, yada, yada, yada... Turns out they were recruiting for PrePaid Legal. Is this just in my area or are they targeting and cold-calling notaries as potential associates all over the place?

I cut the conversation short and advised that I consider it unethical to use my business contacts to market any service to the people for whom I do notary work. I don't know if they are being coached to market to us or if they just come up with this idea on their own, but it worries me that some notaries may be falling for this. (If you want to do prepaid legal, that's a different question that I won't get into here, but sheesh, please keep those kinds of activities separate from your notary businesses, for everyone's sake!)

Reply by MaggieMae_CA on 7/19/11 5:29pm
Msg #390228

A couple of years back I was contacted once about prepaid legal. In fact, I was contacted by a notary from this site who was trying to solicit notaries to do this. I looked into what she was doing and found out it's a pyramid scheme. I was never interested in doing it, was just wondering what she was up to.

I haven't been contacted since that time.

Reply by A S Johnson on 7/19/11 5:58pm
Msg #390235

I don't think you can call it a "pyramid scheme". They are selling a service.
It is muliti-level marketing. Several levels of people make some money on the contract. Just like our signing sercives take an assignment from the lender/title/escrow, the SS gets some $$ and we the notary gets some $$.
I've always had a concern about how legal services are rendered. I know they do use local attorney for some things, BUT the attorney has thier guidelines for the service. In Texas, the firm in Ft Worth that has a contract with them uses very general law docs, not TX specific. I've known of docs, contested wills, that were thrown out of court because the judge didn't think they were TX specific enough.
Remember Pre-Paid started in the mid 60's as a way for trucker to get traffic tickets taken care of.

Reply by JanetK_CA on 7/19/11 8:32pm
Msg #390263

I think you're right about not equating so called multi-level marketing as a "pyramid scheme" (there are a handful of ethical ones out there), however, that doesn't mean it's a sound business. All I know about it is that I tried to use one such service back in the '80s (not sure if it was the same one). The attorneys were being paid based on the number of members signed up in their area, as I understood it. I met with one guy for another business I was working on at the time and I found him completely disinterested in doing more than phoning it in, since he'd already been paid. If it wasn't something he could do via cookie cutter stuff, any time spent on it was just time that couldn't be billed to do something else. Seems to fit with what you're describing.

The key point, however, is that I don't believe we shouldn't be using our position as a Notary Public to try to refer people or recruit them in anything related to legal services. The reasons could be compared in some ways to not using the title "Notario Publico" when dealing with the public. It might lend some inappropriate implication of credibility.

Reply by ikando on 7/20/11 9:59am
Msg #390318

With regard to the Prepaid Legal attorneys, I've worked with the firm here in Tulsa, and know that they have a separate division set up to help those clients. They bill back to Prepaid for the services they provide at a rate discounted from their regular rate. It's been my experience that most services are generic enough that the costs to the firm are minimal, but there are those other times when it takes more involvement.

I am not a member or seller of the company, but to me, it seems to be worth the fee for those who cannot afford an attorney under other circumstances.