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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: accountclosed who wrote (36848)	5/5/1999 11:13:00 AM
From: Ilaine	Respond to of 108807

Thanks for the info, already knew about it. My mother is involved in selling Prepaid Legal services, I have taken a close look at it, and decided to give it a "pass." I don't think it's such a great deal for the clients, frankly. There is only one outfit in Virginia that serves the clients, and they are in Richmond, which is quite a long way away. As a for example, I handled a zillion court-appointed criminal cases when I was first getting started, which were capped at $100 per misdemeanor or traffic offense and $250 per felony. That's not adequequate pay to do a full investigation and trial, and most lawyers automatically plead the case. I treated it as the functional equivalent of pro bono, and tried not to think about the money, that was just for overhead, and my services were "off the clock." You can't do a good job for the kind of retainer Prepaid Legal Services gives you per client, unless very few of the clients actually use your services but pay the retainer anyway, just like HMOs function. Capitation. I think it's evil in the health care business, and I don't think it's smart in the legal business.

To: accountclosed who wrote (36848)	5/6/1999 8:19:00 AM
From: Edwarda	Read Replies (5) \| Respond to of 108807

I just read this article in The New York Times: nytimes.com A great deal of the commentary is facile, but I was struck by the reminders that family sitcoms had the potential for unifying people (an observation for which there is much evidence) and the note that people seem much more divided today. It suggests that serving special interests with more programming choices and with the world of choices that the Internet provides may alienate at the same time that it offers personal contacts around the world that effectively shrink time and distance. (See recent article in Time.) We have experienced this phenomenon of shrinkage right here on this thread with nihil in Hawaii and Steven in the Philippines, beyond the jokes we have shared about coasts signing off for the evening. I have seen contributions on SI alone from all over the world. Many people believe that this enhanced, inexpensive (for most), and often instantaneous ongoing contact and exchange will bring us all closer and engender insight and empathy. Obviously, for some of us it does. But it also offers people (such as EE and other, we hope, limit cases) a way to link with others of like mind, a way that can help to minimize day-to-day extraneous challenge. I am not simply referring to racism and bigotry; EE is merely an example with which we are all familiar. I am simply using him as an example of the potential for even greater division. If this topic has been beaten to death on this thread, I do apologize for raising it again. I have read a great deal of this thread's history and have not seen it addressed in this way, but it may have been. Even so, there are so many new people here (I am relatively new) and the Internet has exploded even in the time since this thread was started by Christine. I should like to know your thoughts, all of you.