Complaint Review: USA Legal Resource - Nationwide

I'm a lawyer in private practice. Recently I've getting more and more calls from people who have paid money to a business called USA Legal Resource in order to get access to a lawyer. Often it's people who are facing evictions or people who think they have some kind of small claims case. Many of the situations sound pretty desperate. Based on what these callers tell me, USA Legal Resource reportedly signs them up for an introductory period and then bills them for monthly access to their "affordable family legal plan." It sounds like the billing starts with just a few dollars and then jumps to roughly $30 per month. The problem with this is that I have never been contacted by USA Legal Resource. I don't receive any money from them. I don't get paid to take their members' calls. I never agreed to be a part of this so-called plan. The calls I get are often well outside of my areas of practice. Based on what I'm reading, there are other lawyers who are getting these calls who, like me, have no relationship at all with this business. 

As best I can tell, after taking their money, USA Legal Resource gives their members my office contact info and tells them I'm part of their plan. The folks who call me tell me that they are expecting to use the service that they have already paid for. They expect that I am getting paid by USA Legal Resource to take their calls and to handle their legal matters. Many of them believe that I owe them a certain amount of time or work because they've paid for it. Some of them can't be convinced that I have no relationship with this business and that I am not obligated to take their cases. This creates bad blood to say the least. 

Essentially USA Legal Resource iappears to be selling people something that sounds a lot like a MetLaw or Hyatt Legal Plans product. But it's not that. The two businesses I just mentioned are quite legitimate. They prescreen lawyers and connect their members with lawyers who handle their types of cases. They pay the lawyers for services rendered to their members. MetLaw and Hyatt are typically available as a part of an employee benefits package. USA Legal Resource does not do these things. USA Legal Resource appears to be charging its members for giving them info that comes from the phonebook or perhaps some kind of internet directory. 

As of today, April 4, 2018, the USA Legal Resource website provides no physical address, no fax number, no employee directory, and lacks many of the hallmarks of being a legitimate business. The URL's true owner operator is apparently shielded from public view. A WHOIS search reveals that the URL is registered to a Wyoming business that appears to own a large number of other URLs. I assume that they are a privacy service. 

I believe that this business takes money from its members and provides nothing of commensurate value in return. At the same time, USA Legal Resource wastes lawyers' time and creates a bad public relations situation for the lawyers who unwittingly get pulled into their "plan." It appears to me that the essence of the scam is that USA Legal Resource sells its members the idea that there is a "plan," or "coverage," or "participating attorneys." This makes it sound like insurance. It's not. It's just a list of lawyers they appear to have taken from the phonebook or a similar directory.