8 The Tar Heel Thursday, June 2, 1977
9
6
NCSU becomes first
state school to offer
legal insurance plan
By LARRY TUPLER
Staff Writer
In a contract-signing ceremony held last
week in Raleigh, N.C. State University
established a first. By entering into an
agreement with the North Carolina Prepaid
Legal Services Corporation (NCPLS), a
nonprofit insurance corporation sponsored
by the State Bar, NCSU became the first
state-supported school in the country to
offer prepaid legal insurance to its faculty
and staff.
Benefits from the plan include up to
S2,200 in coverage per year for legal costs
stemming from a wide range of criminal and
civil proceedings, and the freedom to choose
any lawyer in the United States or Canada.
The cost to each member enrolled in the plan
is S6 a month and is deducted automatically
from his paycheck.
What about the possibilities of such a
program at UNC?"
As far as the faculty is concerned,
negotiations are still in an early stage,
although Dr. Robert Heines, who is in the
process of examining the program for the
UNC Medical School staff, says, "so far, our
impression as far as the plan is concerned is
that it is an attractive idea. We think it's
something worthwhile.'"
As far as students are concerned, however,
the story is a bit different. Originally,
prepaid legal services were sought for
students by Student Legal Services (SLS).
In negotiations earlier this year, SLS
arranged for NCPLS to provide coverage
both in legal matters currently provided by
SLS, such as landlordtenant problems,
consumer matters and discrimination
problems, and in matters presently excluded
by SLS, such as criminal allegations, traffic
violations and domestic-relations problems.
It was to operate as insurance coverage,
exacting a fixed fee and paying each claim as
it came up. It was to cost the same amount of
money that SLS currently requires for its
operations, $20,000.
But when the proposal was brought before
Student Government (SG), it turned out
there had been a misunderstanding in the
negotiations, that NCPLS only intended to
operate on a direct reimbursement system.
This meant that rather than operating on an
insurance concept where all who pay are
entitled to benefits, NCPLS planned to
expend its funds on a dollar-for-dolla; basis,
terminating 'service when its S20,000 had
depleted. This type of plan, according to On
Campus Atty. Dorothy Bernholz, "could
hardly be justified as beneficial to the
students. The first 15 students utilizing the
plan would have exhausted the funds,
working a great inequity on the remaining
student population who had the misfortune
to later incur the need for legal
representation."
SG voted the measure down, resolving to
stick to the present SLS program, despite its
limited range of service.
I n response to the present lack, SLS would
like to expand their offerings to include more
of the services which would have been
provided had the NCPLS proposal been
accepted. Bernholz says she sees "a
demonstrated need for further coverage in
domestic relations and traffic offenses," and
therefore she desires that the SLS hire more
staff attorneys. With a larger staff, each
attorney would be able to develop an
expertise in certain areas, and greater
efficiency and a wider range of services
would result.
But, the Council of The North Carolina
State Bar deems such a move illegal.
According to the Bar, any plan which
restricts its service to the provision of a
determinant number of lawyers for its clients
constitutes a "closed panel" program, and
such is currently prohibited by North
Carolina law.
The only way SLS can currently comply
with the law is through an "opt-out" feature
which allows any student dissatisfied with
SLS to go to another lawyer and receive
A-
;;::;!
4- 7 r r " .
Dorothy Bernholz
financial reimbursement for the visit.
Bernholz, however, feels that "the opt-out
feature is a sham" and that the only way SLS
could adequately extend its service would be
through the elimination of the feature and
the development of an exclusively closed
panel program.
SG is therefore suing the Council of The
North Carolina State Bar. Bernholz feels
that the law violates the First and
Fourteenth amendments, which guarantee
the rights of students to band together to
obtain legal representation of their choice
under conditions of their choice. The suit is
now before the U.S. District Court for the
Western District of North Carolina in
Charlotte and could be decided this month.
AWS backs
new rape bill
with petition
North Carolina rape laws are archaic,
Chapel Hill Rape Crisis Center
spokesperson Joan Hattan said
Monday night at the Association of
Women Students (AWS).
Hattan said a proposed bill in the
N.C. legislature would prohibit the rape
victim's former sexual history from
being brought into the courtroom, raise
the conviction rate, and increase rape
penalties.
"Rapists all over are usually involved
in one or more incidents," Hattan said.
"If the act is repeated, they usually do
not get a bigger penalty." She said the
bills, which probably won't be voted on
until after the legislature's summer
recess, provide for "escalating
punishment" by which a previously
convicted offender would be given a
harsher punishment.
AWS members plan to circulate
petitions concerning the rape bill.
Members will petition in the Union
from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m., beginning
Tuesday 31. Signatures will be collected
for at least one week.
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