Nick P.
Avoid this scam--detailed description how they operate
Unfortunately, this company scams people. I will describe their business model so no one else is fooled hopefully. Initially, they offer you a "Legal Access Plan" ($120) and one-month membership for a total of $159. Although they falsely tell you that paying for this membership will allow you to hire a lawyer from their network at a discounted price, in reality you are passed to a "Case Evaluator" who gives you three options. Option 1 - pay another $100 and they will send you the forms you need to file on your own. However, you can find these forms online for free or ask at your local court so you are really paying $259 ($159 + $100) to have someone else google and find the forms for you. Option 2 - contact a lawyer in their network. But they won't tell you how many lawyers are in their network, who the lawyers are, or whether the lawyers have positive evaluations until AFTER you pay $100. So you are paying $259 to get a list of unknown lawyers (maybe 1, maybe 3, maybe 5 who knows?) whose qualifications you cannot evaluate. By the way, a reputable company would be proud to disclose the identity of the attorneys in their network, but your Case Evaluator will say he doesn't have access to that information so can't tell you. Option 3 is the option they try to push you into--the most expensive one. It costs around $1250 and involves an unknown person "like a paralegal" or other non-attorney filling out legal forms for you and possibly writing a brief with "legal sounding words" to support your motion. They will falsely tell you family court judges only rely on the documents so you don't need a lawyer. But, if you fall for this and hire this unknown person, good luck finding out what this person's qualifications are, what his/her educational background is, and--if they mess up--you're out of luck, because you file the document in your name--their company's name is not on it--and the company has already pocketed your money. So the essential goal of this company is to get you to pay $1250 to have an unknown paralegal or other non-attorney fill out forms for you and possibly write a brief for you. Given all the fraud indicators with this company, it is very likely that many of the positive reviews on this site are fake. Buyer beware. Hopefully with this info you can make the decision that is best for you all. Good luck.
Response from Family Court DirectAug 25, 2022
Dear Nick, We are sorry to hear that you are not satisfied with the services we offer. We are confirming your refund was issued. We are an affordable legal access plan that is here to help people who cannot normally afford an attorney or do not want one. We care deeply about our members, and helping them to reach the most favorable outcome for their situation. We help many people everyday and will continue to be here for those that need us and help navigate the family court system. We offer 3 distinct avenues of help as you mentioned. First, is attorney services, providing access to our directory of attorneys and the ability to browse local attorneys for the case and reach out to them directly. The second way we can help is document services, where an independent licensed legal professional prepares the necessary court documents required for a member to be self represented in their court case. This is a great option as your documents will be professionally completed without having to hire an attorney with a retainer. The third and final way we can help is through our self help service, where we provide information that is offered by the state for the style of case being requested. We do not charge any additional fee for the self help service as long membership is active with us. Our mission is to provide you with the beneficial services, which includes making sure you fully understand our various services available to you. We are sorry that our services did not align with your particular needs. Please feel free to contact us at [email protected] if you have any further questions. Best Wishes, FamilyCourtDirect