LPP REPORT
The benefits of choosing your
lawyers carefully
One of the many strengths of our legal pro-
tection plan is the ability to select from hun-
dreds of attorneys and to change attorneys if
you aren’t satisfied with their performance.
Here are a few tips that will assist you with get-
ting the biggest bang for your LPP buck:
1. Research the attorneys before you engage
them. Ask other officers if they have used
them and if they were satisfied. Interview
your lawyers over the phone before you meet
with them. You are the consumer, so tell
them what you expect from them and hold
them to it.
1.
2. Listen to them after you have enlisted their talents. Many
times, our members think that the lawyers do everything in
their defense. You must be an active part in your defense!
That being said, avoid constant phone calls, text messages
and emails, as the lawyer is most likely billing you for them.
When it comes to business, you don’t need to tell them your
life story, as you are paying them $130 an hour to listen.
3. Try not to switch attorneys during a claim, as this creates re-
2.
dundancy in the work being done. That duplication will re-
sult in paying for the same thing twice, which will result in
less available coverage.
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NEW JERSEY COPS
■ OCTOBER 2017
4.
3. Ask the attorney from the beginning of the claim if they have
any conflicts in your case. Also ask them if they do the type of
work that you need (criminal, civil or administrative). Some
of our attorneys only do administrative work, so if you bring
them out for a shooting they will not represent you if it goes
to trial — resulting once again in a duplication of work.
4. Utilize our target coverages. It is much easier to stay out of
5.
trouble than to get out of trouble. Bring an attorney from the
first moment. Don’t let the IA investigator tell you that you
don’t need an attorney. Every one of the criminals we arrest
has the right to an attorney, so why wouldn’t we as law en-
forcement have one? This practice also protects the employ-
ers to make sure that everything is done right.
6.
5. Monitor your bills with the attorney, ask them for periodic
statements and make sure the entries are correct. If you were
paying for it yourself, you certainly would. We have had in-
stances of attorneys billing 1.7 hours for a meeting on Christ-
mas (which never happened) and for 24.1 hours in a day.
It is extremely important that we act like stewards of our plan.
Because of our cost-saving efforts, we have continually increased
coverage at no additional cost to our members, providing a supe-
rior level of job protection for our members and security for their
families.d