Is Your Family Legally Protected?

Just after I finished university, I moved into my first apartment. One day after work, when I was reheating leftovers for supper, the power went out. My landlord had to call in an electrician to get it fixed and attempted to blame me for the outage, saying I must have been running too many things at once. I’d had the microwave and the toaster on and nothing else in my small, one-bedroom apartment.

The landlord wanted me to pay the electrician’s bill, but my fiancé spent several hours reading the local tenant’s act and figured out that this wasn’t our responsibility. He then spent about an hour talking with my landlord, who kept going around in circles but finally realized my fiancé had done enough research that we couldn’t be bullied. He gave up and we didn’t have to pay.

If, however, my fiancé hadn’t done that research, or I’d been single, that would have turned out very differently. I wouldn’t have had the patience to read the entire tenant’s act myself to figure out what my rights were, or been able to articulate those rights to my landlord. I would have ended up paying hundreds of dollars to a dishonest landlord because I didn’t know my legal rights—or have anyone to ask for help.

How LegalShield Can Help

Cases like that are what make me think that LegalShield is such a good idea. There are many times in our lives when it could be handy to have a lawyer on call. However, for most of us, the idea of a lawyer seems frighteningly expensive. For an affordable monthly rate (like paying for car or medical insurance), LegalShield makes legal coverage affordable for the average family, so that things like dealing with dishonest landlords don’t need to be expensive.

Judy Reiman is an independent associate with LegalShield who took some time to explain everything that the plan offers. Just as having a dental plan gives you the freedom to book a dental visit for any teeth concerns, so having a LegalShield plan gives you the freedom to ask a lawyer any legal questions. The plan includes standard will preparation, living will, and power of attorney forms—important legal documents every person should have.

Every family should safeguard their children, including handicapped dependent adult children, in case something unexpectedly happens to one or both parents. Be proactive and legally document who will have guardianship of your children, how they will be cared for, and how your estate will be distributed. ~ Judy Reiman

Other Important Legal Documents

Too often, we don’t think about legal matters until it’s too late. For example, my grandma is currently suffering from dementia, which has been steadily worsening. About a year ago, my aunt and my grandpa took her to the hospital for some tests. Her doctor recommended a certain procedure and attempted to explain it to my grandma.

That was when my aunt and grandpa realized two things: Grandma no longer had the attention span to understand what the doctor was explaining in order to agree to it, and they didn’t have the power of attorney to help her make that decision. I’m glad they were able to fix that before Grandma’s health deteriorated too much further, but it just illustrated the importance of legal documents. Grandma and Grandpa both have wills but didn’t have other documents.

Judy Reiman, LegalShield independent associate, with Christopher Meyer and Joe Carangi from Watson Goepel LLP (LegalShield’s BC. Law Firm Provider) 

To find out more about LegalShield, drop by Judy’s website or follow her on Twitter.