More Companies Make a Case for Legal Aid to Employees : Benefits: An increasing number of workers can now choose to have access to a lawyer the same way they can a doctor.

By RACHEL BECK

Sept. 28, 1995 12 AM PT

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Shirley Paslay walked out on her husband in 1987 and thought she would never look back. But years later, after finding happiness in a new marriage, she was still battling her former mate in court over the custody of their three children.

It could have been extremely expensive, but Paslay found help through a legal services plan offered in her AT&T; employee benefits package. At no cost to her, Paslay had access to a full range of legal options, including a lawyer to handle her case.

“I felt more confident and secure that I had a lawyer in this situation, and the fact that I did gave me some leverage with my ex,” the sales representative said.

Just as health maintenance organizations, or HMOs, became a part of corporate America over the past decade, company-offered legal plans are gaining popularity as employee benefits.

Eighty-five million people, including covered spouses and dependents, are eligible for such legal services, up from 15 million in 1985, according to the National Resource Center for Consumers of Legal Services in Gloucester, Va.

Some companies automatically cover their entire work force at no charge, often as part of a union bargaining agreement. While each group plan varies, many include toll-free hot lines that give employees 24-hour access to legal advice, as well as a specified number of visits to a lawyer free of charge. They might also get discounts on fees.

Other employers offer legal care as an option on their “cafeteria plans,” a list of benefits that workers choose from depending on their personal needs. The company or the individual usually pays a monthly fee of about $8 to $20 for this service, better known as prepaid legal care.

“Our employees get a certain amount of money each year, based on years of service, that they can put towards their benefits plan,” said Linda Ulrey, a spokeswoman for Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble Co. “We offer a list of options--including dependent care, vision care and elder care--and about one in 10 of our employees go for the legal care option annually.”

Pepsico Inc., The Washington Post Co. and Microsoft Corp. are among the other big companies that offer prepaid legal care as an employee option.

“Prepaid legal care is easy for employers to administer, and their employees like it because of the protection it gives them,” said Alec Schwartz, executive director of the American Prepaid Legal Services Institute, an affiliate of the American Bar Assn. “That’s why the prepaid sector is really growing right now.”

About 10 companies provide the legal care for the nation’s corporations.

While each provider has its own method of administering its services, most generally mimic the way HMOs are run. Participants have access to the legal services provided by a network of lawyers. Real estate closings, divorces, custody battles, wills and estates are all covered; legal action against the employer and criminal defense are not.

“Each customer will use the service for something different in their lives, but on an average, anyone who is signed up will use the plan 1.3 times a year,” said Steven Leaman, senior vice president of marketing for Hyatt Legal Plans Inc. in Cleveland. “Things are coming up all the time, and people like it because they are covered.”

Hyatt, one of the largest providers in the nation, has seen its business grow about 20% each year, with more than 1 million people currently under its plan, Leaman said.

Others, too, report a growth spurt since the start of the 1990s, as more companies broadened their benefits packages. Prudential LegalCare, a unit of Newark, N.J.-based Prudential Insurance Co. of America and Midwest Legal Services, based in Des Moines, Iowa, said demand for their services has recently increased.