What Does LegalShield Cover? Plans, Limits, and Supplements

A LegalShield membership covers routine personal legal needs through an assigned provider law firm: unlimited phone advice, document review, letters and calls made on your behalf, will and estate planning, traffic ticket defense, uncontested family law matters, limited civil trial defense, and — on the Premium plan — IRS audit representation. It does not cover criminal defense, business matters, employment disputes, intellectual property, or any contested divorce or custody fight. What LegalShield covers depends heavily on which of the three personal tiers you buy, and several of the better benefits sit behind waiting periods of 10 to 180 days.¹

What Every Personal Plan Includes

Four benefits come with every tier and can be used almost immediately after enrollment, including on pre-existing issues:

Unlimited phone consultation with your provider law firm on personal legal matters.
Unlimited document review, with per-document page caps of 15 pages on Basic, 25 on Advanced, and 35 on Premium.¹
One letter or one phone call from a lawyer on your behalf per unrelated legal matter.²
Up to one hour of legal research per matter on Basic and Advanced; unlimited on Premium.³

A 24/7 toll-free hotline connects members to a lawyer for specific emergencies: being detained by law enforcement, a child protective services encounter, being served with a warrant, or a serious vehicular accident. Online notarization is included — once a year on Basic, five times on Advanced, and unlimited on Premium.¹

For anything not covered under the plan but not on the hard-exclusion list, members get a discount on the provider firm’s standard rate: 15% on Basic, 20% on Advanced, and 25% on Premium.¹

Wills and Estate Planning

Every plan includes preparation of a last will and testament, a living will or physician’s directive, and a durable power of attorney. Advanced and Premium members get annual reviews and updates of these documents at no extra charge. The Basic plan covers the member and spouse; Advanced and Premium extend estate planning to eligible dependent children.⁴

Revocable living trusts cost extra. Premium members pay a $250 flat fee per person; Basic and Advanced members receive a percentage discount off the standard rate. Simplified probate is included on the Premium plan after 180 days of membership, provided the provider firm prepared the will.⁴ Estate tax planning is excluded.⁵

Traffic Tickets and Driving

LegalShield handles non-criminal moving violations like speeding and running red lights. The yearly cap scales with the plan: one ticket on Basic, two on Advanced, three on Premium. Unused tickets on Advanced and Premium roll over, up to a cap of three and five respectively.⁶

Basic coverage is limited to your home state. Advanced and Premium extend to out-of-state tickets. If the lawyer has to appear in court, a $79 fee applies.⁶ The benefit is not immediate: Basic members wait 90 days, Advanced and Premium members wait 10 days, and tickets issued during the waiting period are not covered.¹

Advanced and Premium also include help with license suspension and reinstatement and assistance collecting property damage claims of $5,000 or less from vehicle accidents. The Premium plan adds criminal defense for death-related traffic charges, including manslaughter, involuntary manslaughter, negligent homicide, and vehicular homicide.⁶

Family Law — Only When Uncontested

This is the boundary most new members miss. LegalShield’s family law benefits apply only to uncontested matters where both parties agree on everything in writing. Contested divorces and custody disputes are not covered.

Advanced and Premium plans include help with uncontested divorce, uncontested adoption of a minor, uncontested separation or civil annulment, uncontested name changes, and prenuptial and postnuptial agreements. All of these require 180 consecutive days of membership first.⁷ For the divorce benefit specifically, net marital assets must be under $500,000, both spouses must agree in writing on all issues, and neither spouse can have separate counsel.¹ Basic members do not receive these family benefits directly but can access them at a 15% discount.

Child custody is not a standalone covered benefit on individual plans. LegalShield explicitly excludes “marriage, separation, annulment, child custody, or other divorce or other domestic related issues” from its civil trial defense coverage.¹ Some employer-sponsored group plans add post-decree child custody representation (up to 8 hours) and enforcement or modification of child support orders (up to 8 hours), but those extensions do not come with the plans sold directly to consumers.⁵

Civil Trial Defense

If you’re sued in a covered civil matter, the plan assigns you a block of pre-trial and trial hours that grows with each consecutive year of membership. First-year members start with 1 pre-trial hour and 30 trial hours on Basic, 60 trial hours on Advanced, and 100 trial hours on Premium. Hours accrue annually, topping out at 5 pre-trial hours and up to 300 trial hours on Advanced and Premium after three to five years of continuous membership.³

Hours do not roll over. Once you’ve used them, additional time is billed at the member discount rate. Civil trial defense excludes pre-existing matters, counterclaims, class actions, criminal charges, IRS and bankruptcy matters, and all domestic and family disputes.¹ A separate Trial Defense Supplement is available, but it can’t be added after a lawsuit has been filed.⁸

IRS Audits

Full IRS audit representation is included only on the Premium plan. It covers advice, consultation, negotiation, and representation if the primary member or spouse is audited on a personal income tax return. First-year members get up to 3.5 pre-trial hours and 10 trial hours, growing to a maximum of 50 trial hours after five years.¹

Audit coverage does not extend to business, corporate, or trust returns, even when business income appears on a personal return. Charges of tax fraud or evasion are excluded, as are IRS garnishment and attachment actions. Coverage starts with the return due April 15 of the enrollment year, and any audit notices received before you joined count as pre-existing and are excluded.¹

Consumer, Housing, and Everyday Matters

All plans include advice on consumer disputes: unauthorized credit card charges, collection agency harassment, billing errors, non-delivery of goods, subscription issues, missing refunds, and hidden fees. The lawyer can send a letter or make a call to a creditor, company, or collection agency, and review contracts before you sign them.²

For renters, Advanced and Premium include full tenant lease assistance — consultation, document review, and negotiation on your primary residence. Basic members get a 15% discount on that service. Residential loan document review (for a mortgage, refinance, or home equity loan) is available once per membership year on Advanced and Premium.⁹ Homeowners can use the general document review benefit for home improvement contracts and get advice on HOA matters, contractor disputes, and home buying and selling questions.¹⁰ Representation in construction or real estate litigation is not included, and title opinions and abstract reviews are excluded.⁵

What LegalShield Does Not Cover

The exclusions define the service as much as the inclusions do. The standard personal plan does not cover:

Criminal defense. Felony charges and DUI/DWI are excluded entirely and are not eligible for the member discount. The only criminal coverage on individual plans is Premium’s defense for death-related traffic charges.⁵
Business matters. Any interest in a business, partnership, corporation, trust, or income-producing venture is outside the personal plan. A separate small business plan or the Home Business Supplement is required.⁵
Intellectual property. Patents, trademarks, and copyrights are not covered.⁵
Employment law and statutory benefits.⁵
Immigration representation. Advice, consultation, document review, and hearing preparation are available, but actual representation in immigration hearings is not.¹¹
Matters involving Native or First American tribes, tribal governments, courts, and administrative bodies.⁵
Fines, court costs, filing fees, expert witness fees, bonds, and bail. These remain the member’s responsibility.⁵
Class actions, appeals, and post-judgment matters, though these may qualify for the member discount rate.⁵

Waiting Periods and Pre-Existing Issues

LegalShield says account setup takes 12 to 24 business hours, after which advice and consultation — including on pre-existing matters — are available right away.¹² Several benefits are gated by time, though:

Family law services (divorce, adoption, separation, annulment, name change, prenuptial and postnuptial agreements) require 180 consecutive days of membership.
Traffic ticket assistance waits 90 days on Basic and 10 days on Advanced and Premium.
Criminal defense for death-related traffic accidents waits 10 days.¹

Pre-existing events are excluded from traffic ticket assistance, criminal defense for traffic accidents, and civil trial defense. For most other pre-existing matters you can still get consultation and the discount rate, but not full plan coverage.¹²

Add-On Supplements

Three supplements extend coverage into areas the standard plan either excludes or treats lightly.

Gun Owners Supplement

For an additional $14.95 per month, the Gun Owners Supplement adds unlimited consultation on firearm rights and carry rules, plus 60 hours per plan year of trial defense (20 pre-trial, 40 trial) for criminal or civil lawsuits arising from a covered firearm incident in a place where you’re legally permitted to carry. It includes 24/7 emergency access after a self-defense shooting or police encounter and preparation of one NFA Gun Trust for a $250 flat fee.¹³ Bond, bail, and appeals are not covered.¹⁴

Home Business Supplement

At $14.95 per month on top of a personal plan, this supplement adds business legal consultation, document review (up to four documents a month, 25 pages each), four collection letters a month, and IRS audit coverage for Schedule C and Schedule E items on a personal return. It also includes three 30-minute specialty consultations per year on topics like tax, patent, trademark, copyright, or antitrust law. It’s limited to businesses with no more than two entities and does not cover commercial property leases or business entity tax returns.¹⁵

Rideshare and Delivery Supplement

For $12.95 per month, gig economy drivers get consultation, document review, and representation for an unlimited number of moving violations tied to rideshare and delivery work, plus IRS audit consultation for that income and a 25% discount on additional legal services outside the plan.¹⁶

Price and Who’s Covered

Personal plans are billed monthly, with a discount for paying annually:

Basic: $39.95 per month, or $35.95 per month billed annually.
Advanced: $49.95 per month, or $44.96 per month billed annually.
Premium: $59.95 per month, or $53.96 per month billed annually.³

All plans cover the primary member and their spouse. Advanced and Premium extend estate planning and certain other benefits to eligible dependent children.⁴ You do not pick your own attorney: LegalShield assigns you to a provider firm based on your state, and a service representative routes each call to an appropriate lawyer within that firm. Cancellation requires a written request by email or mail, and annual memberships can be cancelled after the first 12 months.¹²

1
LegalShield. Personal Legal Plans
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LegalShield. Consumer Rights
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LegalShield. Pricing
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LegalShield. Estate Planning
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Caltech Human Resources. LegalShield Overview
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LegalShield. Traffic and Accidents
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LegalShield. Family Law
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LegalShield. Trial Defense Supplement
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LegalShield. Renters
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LegalShield. How It Works
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Corestream. LegalShield Plan Details
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LegalShield. FAQ
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LegalShield. Gun Owners Supplement
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Andrus Benefits. Gun Owner Supplement Details
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LegalShield. Home Business Add-On
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LegalShield. Rideshare and Delivery Coverage