Are any of the lawyers in [Pre-paid legal service], Board Certified by the State of Texas as Criminal Defense Lawyers (specialty/trial)?davidd wrote:I will try to answer a number of questions raised in this discusion as best i can in more depth.
The [Pre-paid legal service] program was created by lawyers at Walker, Rice & Wisdom, P.C. from the ground up and is designed for one singular purpose - to preserve the freedom of our clients in the program if they ever use their gun.
Our firm’s philosophy is to assist our firearms clients and if they have to use their gun, we want to help. We are not looking for ways to exclude representing our clients. That would defeat the purpose of the program - i.e. encourage gun owners to exercise and preserve mine and your 2nd Amendment rights.
In a previous post, someone expressed a concern about the “conflicts” provision of the contract. The conflict of interest clause is necessary because the law firm cannot represent a party in a situation which would pit the law firm against itself, such as if a client shoots a member of the firm, their family, or another client. If that happens, the law firm cannot represent either party. This is a standard practice which is also mandated by the rules of professional ethics governing attorneys. Lawyers must adhere to rules set out by the State Bar of Texas. Our conflict exclusions are if you shoot: 1) an employee of the firm; 2) a family member of a firm employee; and 3) another client of the firm. Obviously if you shoot Mr. Wisdom’s son he is not going to represent you.
Also, that blogger questioned the exclusion for crimes by the client. The “crime” exclusion in the [Pre-paid legal service] contract applies to those situations where a CHL holder uses his handgun in the commission of an act where he has no claim that it was a justified use of deadly force. For example, if a CHL holder walks into a convenience store and robs it, clearly he has no justification in the use of deadly force. On the other hand, if we walks into the convenience store and stumbles upon a robbery in progress, his use of his gun would be justified and we would represent him in the police investigation, grand jury, and through trial if the DA thinks otherwise. If there is any legal justification for the use of the gun, we are there to help. These are just common sense provisions.
Also, in another post, a blogger suggested we offer our services to those who hold a CHL from other states with reciprocity with Texas. Our law firm is happy to cover a Texas resident who possesses any CHL recognized by the State of Texas, for any defensive use of any firearm within the State of Texas. In fact, we do have clients with CHLs issued by other states. We want to help legal gun owners.
The comments and suggestions in this forum have been very helpful. We also took a look at the comment about having to use your handgun in order to be covered by the CHL program. We think this is a good point. The contract will be changed to reflect that if you use a gun (not just your handgun) to defend yourself that you are covered. Those changes should be made and posted shortly. We appreciate the feedback from everyone out there. We strive to make our services better and with the suggestions from other gun owners, we hope to accomplish just that.
If you have any questions, please contact me. My personal email is ddonchecz@yahoo.com or at the office at davidd@[Pre-paid legal service].com
Can't seem to find that specific info on their web site. http://www.[Pre-paid legal service].com/chl_who.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; Sorry if I overlooked it.