Section 83-49-5 - DefinitionsIn this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings:
(a) "Sponsor" means any insurer, as defined in this section, or any other corporation organized for the exclusive purpose of establishing and operating prepaid legal services plans.(b) "Prepaid legal services plan" or "plan" means any arrangement whereby responsibility is undertaken to provide or arrange for, or to pay for or reimburse any part of the cost of, any legal services for a consideration consisting in part of prepaid or periodic charges or dues; but the provisions of this chapter shall not apply to the benefits available under automobile club membership contracts and automobile liability insurance policies which supply limited legal services or reimbursement for legal services in automobile-related matters under certificates of authority issued by the Insurance Commissioner, or to any legal aid or other legal services program for the indigent, or to limited legal services supplied by professional education associations to their members, or to any employer-employee legal services plan which is excluded from the provisions of this chapter by the provisions of the Federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, or any amendments thereto.(c) "Legal services" means any services normally provided by an attorney, as well as the payment of court costs and related expenses incurred in the exercise of any right; but not including the payment of fines, penalties, judgments or assessments. "Legal services" shall not include any service provided by an attorney in regard to a tort action.(d) "Advertising" means any communication, other than a solicitation, as hereinafter defined, to the public or any segment thereof by means of radio, television, newspaper, magazine, periodical, brochure, pamphlet, circular, or any other means, the apparent purpose or reasonable effect of which would be to convey information purporting to relate to or describe legal rights, legal services, attorneys or prepaid legal services plans. "Solicitation" means any communication, written or oral, in person, or by means of telephone, radio, television, newspaper, magazine, periodical, brochure, circular, or otherwise, of any offer of coverage in a prepaid legal services plan, or invitation, or request to enroll in a prepaid legal services plan, or attempt to obtain consideration for the coverage of a prepaid legal services plan, or any other device, the apparent purpose or reasonable effect of which would be to induce the recipient thereof to enroll in, or pay any consideration for the coverage provided by, a prepaid legal services plan.
(e) "Commissioner" means the Insurance Commissioner of the State of Mississippi.(f) "Subscriber" means any person who has been enrolled in a prepaid legal services plan and is entitled to receive the benefits provided in the plan.(g) "Subscription contract" means any contract signed by an authorized representative of a prepaid legal services plan and an individual or an authorized representative of his group or employer or labor union or other entity with which he is affiliated, under which the individual becomes a subscriber to the plan.(h) "Insurer," as defined in this chapter means an insurer licensed to transact life or casualty insurance in this state.Laws, 1983, ch. 474, § 3; Laws, 1997, ch. 307, § 7; Laws, 2009, ch. 336, § 1, eff. 3/16/2009.