Also known as: pre-pay · pre-paying · prepaid legal services · prepaid expenses
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
Payment made in advance of the performance of an obligation or the delivery of goods or services.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Parker Phillips, a solo practitioner, joins a prepaid legal service plan run by an independent nonprofit. The plan sends representatives to community centers to sign up members who have no immediate legal need. Phillips provides services under the plan without owning or directing the nonprofit. The arrangement complies with the exception permitting such participation.
Preston Pratt pays the Florida Prepaid Postsecondary Education Expense Board the full amount for his child's future tuition before the semester begins. The board accepts the advance funds and credits the account. When the child enrolls, the prepaid amount covers the charges without further billing.
Peter Park, an Arizona lawyer, advertises routine legal services at fixed fees under a prepaid plan. The state bar claims the ads violate rules against solicitation. The Supreme Court holds that truthful advertising of prepaid or routine services receives First Amendment protection.
Penelope Price buys a new car from Bloomfield Motors and later discovers defects. The warranty requires returning parts with transportation charges prepaid. Price complies and sues when the manufacturer refuses repairs. The court finds the warranty unconscionable and unenforceable.
Phoebe Park pays her landlord two months of rent in advance before moving into the apartment. The lease designates the funds as prepaid rent for the first and last months. When the tenancy ends early, the landlord applies the remaining prepaid amount to the final period.
Paul Peterson tenders the full remaining balance on his mortgage six months before maturity. The note contains no prepayment-fee clause. The lender accepts the prepaid funds and releases the lien without demanding any additional charge.
Model Rule 7.3(e) permits a lawyer to participate in a prepaid or group legal service plan operated by an organization not owned or directed by the lawyer even when the plan uses live person-to-person contact to enroll members who are not known to need legal services in a particular matter.
Supporting sources
Florida Prepaid holds that Congress may not abrogate state sovereign immunity for patent claims against a state entity operating a prepaid education expense program when acting under Article I powers.
Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act provisions require return of prepaid rent upon termination of the lease along with any security deposit, subject to permitted deductions for unpaid obligations.
Supporting sources
…a " congruence and proportionality between the injury to be prevented or remedied and the means adopted to that end." Florida Prepaid Postsecondary Ed. Expense Bd. v. College Savings Bank , 527 U. S. 627, 639 (1999); Flores , 521 U. S., at 526. Section 13981 is not aimed at proscribing discrimination by officials which…