Most people not in business for themselves don't expect to use a lawyer for anything beyond some routine matters like buying or selling a house, borrowing some money, drawing Wills, and helping with an estate. People in business for themselves will know that they have legal needs relating to their business, but even they expect their needs to be routine. In my opinion, based on practicing law since 1975, these expectations are reasonably accurate.

Beyond these routine items, however, people are involved in legal matters all the time, and without legal advice. They sign contracts, they make deals, they get tickets, they buy things, they rent things, they sell things, they get into disagreements, they feel they have been wronged, they make mistakes, and so on. The common practice is understandably to conduct these matters without any legal help. Who can be expected to pay a couple of hundred dollars to talk to a lawyer on such apparently harmless things?

It is here that more and more people are getting into trouble. I see it in my practice virtually every day. Here's what happening.

Generally speaking, people expect (whether they think about it or not) that if one of these apparently harmless things gets out of hand, gets on the wrong course, or gets them into trouble, that the legal system will be able to effectively help them. This expectation is absolutely false. It may have been true at one time, but it is not true today. The legal system today will only be able to resolve troublesome situations after significant expense, delay, frustration, and unhappy compromise. Why this has happened is another subject. The fact is, it has happened, and it is getting worse. More importantly, this decline in the effectiveness of the legal system to fix troublesome situations is catching most people by surprise. All of that creates a big challenge

Let's turn to the solution.

Beyond handling routine matters, and even in situations that you think are harmless, you need to be able to use the legal system to answer questions, and to get guidance on the right course of action. By doing this, you will prevent problems and avoid the challenges described above. In short you need to have ready access to the legal system, without cost holding you back. This need is satisfied by plans whereby you have easy access to ongoing legal guidance for a small monthly sum. We call these "Flat Rate Legal Plans".

This approach to the legal system is analogous to the way most people approach their health. No one expects to get sick, but sickness does happen, and through health plans we make it financially possible to stay in regular contact with the health system, for check ups and to keep any health issues small, and the means to financially handle an unexpected illness. Similarly, no one expects to get into legal trouble, but it does happen, and if you have easy access to the legal system for ongoing guidance through a Flat Rate Legal Plan you will be able to keep legal problems infrequent and small.

To encourage participation in our Flat Rate Legal Plans, we also give plan holders reduced rates on their Wills, annual Wills reviews, and other legal work.

You can get details of our Flat Rate Legal Plans from our website (www.salmonarmlaw.com), or from our office.