Real Estate Issues Tops List of PPD's Legal Services Requests for First Half of 2010

ADA, Okla., July 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Real estate-related issues was the leading legal service request among members (customers) of Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc. (NYSE: PPD) during the first half of 2010 followed by 2) consumer finance, 3) family law, 4) collections and 5) estate planning. The top five legal service requests for the first six-months of the year is based on the total volume of approximately 1.1 million member requests for legal services to the 40 independent provider law firms that assist Pre-Paid Legal members throughout the U.S. and four provinces of Canada.

"The top legal service requests from Pre-Paid Legal Services members for the first half of 2010 are the same as for the entire year in 2009," said Pre-Paid Legal's Founder and Chairman of the Board Harland C. Stonecipher. "Our members continue to access a variety of legal services in response to life issues brought on by a weak economy and high unemployment. Looking down the list, from houses (real estate) to credit cards (consumer finance) to kids (family law), the economy's domino effect is all too apparent," Stonecipher said.

Of the total requests for legal services, the top five list accounts for 47 percent, or approximately 533,000 of the total legal service requests since January 1 of this year. The remaining 597,000 requests were for a variety of other legal services, such as traffic-related matters, employment issues, criminal violations, bankruptcy and business issues.

By category, the top five legal service requests include:

Real Estate, Landlord/Tenant Issues, Foreclosure and Loan Modification – Approximately 174,400 requests, or 15 percent of the total requests, were for issues that include residential and commercial real estate transactions, landlord/tenant disputes and legal counsel related to foreclosure, short sales and loan modifications

Consumer Finance – Approximately 103,400 requests, or 9 percent of the total requests, were for issues related to retail transactions for warranties, guarantees and other contracts

Family Law – Approximately 97,700 requests, or 9 percent of the total requests, were for legal services related to divorce, child support, child custody and child visitation

Collections – Approximately 79,000 requests, or 7 percent of the total requests, were for debt issues, including member support against other parties and member defense against third-party debt collectors

Estate Planning – Approximately 78,000 requests, or 7 percent of the total requests, were for services that include preparation of wills and other counsel related to final estates

Robert W. LoPresti, a partner with Los Angeles-based Parker Stanbury, LLP (http://www.parkstan.com) says it is no surprise that real estate issues tops the list of legal services requests both nationally and for the State of California.

"When the real estate bubble burst, it created an outpouring of requests for legal services related to foreclosure, loan modification and landlord tenant issues," LoPresti said. "In the first six months of this year, Parker Stanbury has responded to an estimated 240,000 requests for legal services from Pre-Paid Legal members, and more than 50,000 of these requests concerned real estate issues," he said.

Parker Stanbury, LLP has provided legal services to PPD members in the California market for the past 14 years.

Richard A. Campbell, a partner with Atlanta-based Deming, Parker, Hoffman, Campbell & Daly, LLC (http://www.deminglaw.com/index.html), says that many of the legal issues found on the top five list are interconnected.

"Each of these legal issues begins and ends with money," Campbell said. "Whether it's foreclosure, bankruptcy, consumer debt or family law, it's about money and often the amount is significant. Considering the high cost of traditional legal services, it's not surprising that people often delay in dealing with these matters. By waiting to obtain quality legal advice, the problems don't go away. They only grow larger," he said.  

Deming, Parker, Hoffman, Campbell & Daly, LLC, has been Pre-Paid Legal's Georgia provider law firm since 1990.

The PPD top five list of legal service plan requests is based on statistical data collected from the provider law firms and shared with PPD. PPD maintains a rigorous monitoring system and conducts surveys which provide feedback on the customer service experience of PPD members with the provider law firms. This is one of the distinguishing characteristics of PPD's "Provider Law Firm Network System." The average tenure for provider law firms in the PPD network is more than 12 years.

About PPD -- We believe our products are one of a kind, life events legal service plans. Our plans provide for legal service benefits provided through a network of independent law firms across the U.S. and Canada, and include unlimited attorney consultation as well as will preparation, traffic violation defense, automobile-related criminal charges defense, letter writing, document preparation and review and a general trial defense benefit. We have an identity theft restoration product we think is also one of a kind because of the combination of outside vendors and our provider law firms. More information about us and our products can be found at our homepage at http://www.prepaidlegal.com.

Forward-Looking Statements -- Statements in this press release, other than purely historical information, regarding our future plans and objectives and expected operating results, dividends and share repurchases and statements of the assumptions underlying such statements, constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The forward-looking statements contained herein are based on certain assumptions that may not be correct. They are subject to risks and uncertainties incident to our business that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties are described in the reports and statements filed by us with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including (among others) those listed in our Form 10-K, Form 10-Q and Form 8-K, and include the risks that our membership persistency or renewal rates may decline, that we may not be able to continue to grow our memberships and earnings, that we are dependent on the continued active participation of our principal executive officer, that pending or future litigation may have a material adverse effect on us if resolved unfavorably to us, that we may have compromises of our information security, that consumer purchases of discretionary items may be impacted by a downturn in the economy, that we could be adversely affected by regulatory developments, that competition could adversely affect us, that we are substantially dependent on our marketing force, that our stock price may be affected by short sellers, that we have been unable to increase our employee group membership sales, that our active premium in force is not indicative of future revenue as a result of changes in active memberships from cancellations and additional membership sales and that we have repurchased more than half of our outstanding shares. Please refer to pages 16 through 19 of our 2009 Form 10-K and pages 7 and 8 of our June 30, 2010 Form 10-Q for a more complete description of these risks. We undertake no duty to update any of the forward looking statements in this release.

SOURCE Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc.