Reading Comprehension

PT117 · S1 · P1 · Q5 CAW Legal Services Plan

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The Canadian Auto Workers’ (CAW) Legal Services Plan, designed to give active and retired autoworkers and their families access to totally prepaid or partially reimbursed legal services, has been in operation since late 1985.

Topic

The impact of prepaid legal services plans—specifically the CAW Legal Services Plan—on clients, lawyers, and the legal profession in Canada.

Framework

Challenge Position

Main Point

While prepaid legal services like the CAW plan have become popular and offer reduced-cost legal help to members, the author argues that these plans are unlikely to provide long-term satisfaction to clients or substantial profits to law firms, and may even lower the quality of legal services overall. — (Start of paragraph 3 is the "Most Valuable Sentence".)

P1: Introduction to the CAW Legal Services Plan and its Growth

The first paragraph introduces the CAW Legal Services Plan, which allows autoworkers and their families to access prepaid or partially reimbursed legal services through staff or outside lawyers. The idea has caught on, with a significant portion of union members enrolled and even other sectors experimenting with similar plans.

P2: Lawyers’ Concerns and Plan Directors’ Counterarguments

Here we learn that while many plan members are happy with reduced legal costs, many lawyers are worried these plans drive prices down too much. Critics say fees are dropping to unprofitable levels, but plan directors argue that lawyers benefit from increased business and referrals, which supposedly offset discounts.

P3: Author’s Skepticism—Long-Term Issues and Lowered Quality

The author pivots here, expressing skepticism about these plans' benefits. They claim that such plans are mainly helpful for lawyers just starting out—not established ones—and that participating lawyers may be less experienced, potentially providing lower-quality service. Low fees can result in lawyers spending minimal time on cases, ultimately hurting both client satisfaction and law firm profitability.

The passage most strongly suggests that, according to proponents of prepaid legal plans, cooperating lawyers benefit from taking clients at lower fees in which one of the following ways?

Lawyers can expect to gain
Unrelated to Goal: expertise
We're looking for "the clients they help at a discounted rate through the CAW plan will refer the law firm to other people who will then pay full price". It doesn't have anything to do with gaining expertise in a wide variety of legal services.
9% picked this
Experienced cooperating lawyers are likely
Unrelated to Goal: experienced vs. new
We're looking for "the clients they help at a discounted rate through the CAW plan will refer the law firm to other people who will then pay full price". It doesn't have anything to do with talking about a distinction between experienced and inexperienced lawyers, as it pertains to longer more complex cases.
1% picked this
Correct
Lower rates of profit will
Why this is right
We're looking for "the clients they help at a discounted rate through the CAW plan will refer the law firm to other people who will then pay full price". Lower rates of profit = the CAW plan client gets helped at a discounted rate offset = net benefit higher volume of clients and new business through word-of-mouth recommendations = satisfied clients are referring this lawyer to 3 or 4 other people
Skill tested: Inference · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.
87% picked this
Lower fees tend to attract
Unrelated to Goal
Unrelated to Goal: steal other firms' clients Contradicted We're looking for "the clients they help at a discounted rate through the CAW plan will refer the law firm to other people who will then pay full price". This is talking about "giving the CAW clients the discounted rate to lure them away from other firms that are more established". But this is actually contradicted by the idea that proponents are saying cooperating lawyers who work with CAW clients will "get professional contact with people who would not otherwise be using legal services". The initial clients a lawyer would get through the CAW plan are not clients of any law firm.
3% picked this
With all legal fees moving
Unrelated to Goal: market forces
We're looking for "the clients they help at a discounted rate through the CAW plan will refer the law firm to other people who will then pay full price". It doesn't have anything to do with the industry's pricing benchmarks moving downward from market forces.
1% picked this

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