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Concealed Carry Legal Services
An interesting idea. Texas only, now anyway. You subscribe for an annual fee, and if you're in a defensive shooting situation, they will dispatch an attorney to the scene, 24/7.
[The comments do have a good point: with a service like this, you get whoever is available at the moment, who's never known you, and is of unknown skill].
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I would be very surprised if a *good* attorney would sign up for one of these referral services.
Criminal defense attorneys are accustomed to being called at odd hours - find the name of a good one, carry his business card in your wallet, and forget the referral service.
Curious.
I've seen a legal team set up this kind of yearly fee for guaranteed legal coverage. Though the example I'm thinking of was for homeschool parents, and any legal problems related to homeschooling...
It should work, on several conditions:
(a) actual number of billable hours is relatively low, compared to number of subscribers
(b) the potential need for coverage is enough to keep a large number of subscribers on the list
(c) service is prompt, efficient, and effective
(d) the firm doesn't gain a reputation, justly or unjustly, of eagerly defending obvious crooks
My guess is, since there is more than one such group offering the service, that the percieved need is relatively high.
What I would like to know is whether the new service has an in-house team that handles all legal work, or a network of affiliated lawyers supported by a team at a central location.
Texas is a rather large place. The card of a guy in your home town is going to be of limited use (or extremely expensive) if he is an 8 hour drive away. For folks who travel a fair amount, this seems like it would be a reasonable supplement to having the card of someone in their town.
As the saying goes, "Any gun is better than no gun at all." In a shooting situation any lawyer should be able to protect your basic rights and put the city, state, press, etc, on notice that you're not taking any crap.
I am one of those home schoolers who has subscribed to the HSLDA (Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA.org) They respond to a specific set of needs, usually problems with the school district or social services coming and saying you are adbusing your kids.
Most of what they do is first make contact by phone and try to clarify what the law is and how the school district's or social workers position is illegal/unreasonable. In cases they have gone to court for people and will so forth.
The other major part is they try to monitor legislation and counter and problem before they happen.
They are good at what they do and those of us homeschooling renew that membership before anything else.
Now in concealed carry they are probably going to try to arrest you right off the bat and that is not the case usually in homeschooling. In homeschooling the establishment is trying to intimidate you into doing something you do not have to do and which they have no right to ask you to do. It is the a bully position mostly that often is solved by a phone call.
so having a lawyer show up could be a nice touch because it says don't eff with me I have a lawyer.
It could be worth it in a pinch, if you don't retain a criminal defense lawyer to jump when you call...most any atty can arrange for bail and do the prelim things necessary to regain immediate freedom.
This is the second company I've seen like this, both in TX. I do sort of wonder how responsive they can truly be, if they can really provide a self-defense-savvy attorney to any location in Texas on demand. Perhaps these two (and any others) should join forces to provide better coverage/availability.