CCW Safe vs US Law Shield [2024]: Which CCW Insurance Do We Prefer?

CCW Safe and US Law Shield have already been ranked in our Best Concealed Carry Insurance List and each have their own full reviews: CCW Safe Review and US Law Shield Review. 

But many of you have been asking for direct comparison of these two companies even though CCW Safe took the #1 spot.

In this CCW Safe vs US Law Shield comparison, we’re going to compare the coverage and features of these two concealed carry insurance providers to help you decide which one might be right for you.

For me and my family, however, I chose CCW Safe.

CCW Safe vs US Law Shield: Which is the Best?

Which concealed carry insurance should you get, CCW Safe or US Law Shield?

I’ve got two answers for you.

1. The easy answer: “I chose CCW Safe“
2. The more complicated answer: “It depends”

The complicated answer is “it depends” because it’s almost impossible for me to answer what is right for your situation for a few reasons:

First, I don’t know your situation. You need to consider things like your risk tolerance, your budget for such a product (what can you afford and what do you actually want to pay), and your financial situation to handle defending yourself against criminal and/or civil court cases (how important is it to protect yourself and your family financially).

Although I hope to help you make a decision for yourself, I can’t possibly make the decision about which company you should choose – heck, I can’t even tell you whether you should get this type of coverage at all.

When I started my research of concealed carry insurance companies for our ultimate CCW insurance guide where we rank each company, I was not a customer and wasn’t convinced that I needed such coverage.

However, the more I looked into them and the more I realized how vulnerable I could be if I have to use my firearm in self defense, I signed up myself and my family up for CCW Safe before the article was published.

I, like many others, thought that I wouldn’t ever use my firearm unless it was justified self defense. However, as ashamed as I should be as an attorney, I didn’t realize how many times someone used a firearm (even if they didn’t fire it as in the McClosky case) that seemed justifiable to me but they were still charged with a crime or sued by others and then were stuck with major legal defense costs (easily in the hundreds of thousands of dollars).

Second, even when I realized I wanted to sign up with a company, it is REALLY hard to compare these companies because their offerings are so unique. This is where I hope to help you make your decision.

As a note, none of these companies actually offer “insurance” – instead, they offer self-defense legal protection coverage.

In this comparison, we’ll explore the coverage options and pros and cons of CCW Safe and US Law Shield to help you see which is right for you.

If you don’t want to read this whole deep-dive into CCW Safe vs US Law Shield, then you should know that US Law Shield ranked last in our Best CCW Insurance comparison and CCW Safe took first place.  

We think that the best CCW insurance option is CCW Safe.

CCW Safe: Our Take

CCW Safe, although smaller, provides the best legal coverage in our opinion. Their defense coverage amounts are unlimited and they are a legal “dream-team.”

Although not the most expensive, they are at the higher end of cost.

Things we love about CCW Safe: Unlimited coverage amounts, excellent expert resources, and they meet all three of our “must haves” (but, your attorney does need to be approved).

Things we’d change if we could: Although a per diem is paid, it is the lowest of the companies that pay.

Check out how they compare to US Law Shield in our full break-down below.

CCW Safe Pros and Cons

Learn more about CCW Safe in our full review

US Law Shield: Our Take

When it comes to “Concealed Carry Insurance” we believe that there are three things that ccw insurance must have : the ability to pick your own attorney, money up front (not just reimbursement), and a daily per-diem payment while in court.

Unfortunately, US Law Shield doesn’t meet 2 out of our 3 “must haves” and therefore we can’t recommend it – regardless of their low pricing, unlimited defense amounts, or other features.
They won’t let you pick your own attorney and there is no per diem available. This may not be a big deal to you but we believe a low cost to get unlimited dollars towards defense isn’t wise if you don’t trust/like your attorney.

Also, their standard plans miss major features that CCW Safe covers like bail bond funding and expert witness fees. They are available for an up-charge, however, they are not available in all states.

US Law Shield Pros and Cons

CCW Safe vs US Law Shield: Pricing

For a single member basic plan, US Law Shield is noticeably less expensive than CCW Safe.

Is this a great deal or are you getting what you pay for?

The US Law Shield basic plan is missing features that the CCW San Plan includes. And, if you want to include them, US Law Shield charges extra for them.

For example, it’s an additional $2.95 a month if you’d like coverage in every state, an extra $2.00 per month if you’d like to add your minor children to your plan, and if you’d like to add bail bond funding and expert witness fees it’s an extra $2.95 per month.

But this last option is not available in all states.

Even with these extra fees, however, US Law Shield is still less expensive than CCW Safe’s lowest tier plan but the costs are closer in comparison.

If you’re looking at cost only – and not the product you’re getting, then US Law Shield surely wins.

Winner: US Law Shield 

However, looking only at the cost of these concealed carry insurance plans without taking into consideration exactly what you get for the money isn’t enough to make a decision. After all, the best way to save money is to put it in your pocket. 🙂

You’re here to figure out which option is the best protection for you and your family so you’re going to want to keep reading!

CCW Safe vs US Law Shield: Defense Coverage

This one seems straight forward – many people just look at the dollar amounts to see which one wins. However, it’s not that straight forward.

For example, our biggest issues with US Law Shield is you don’t have the ability to pick your own attorney. A lot of money spent on a bad attorney is not a winning strategy.

As you can see, neither option limits the dollar amount of your legal defense coverage. However, CCW Safe does not limit which attorney you can use (mostly). CCW Safe has the right to reject an attorney you choose – this does seem reasonable. For example, if you chose me as your attorney, I HOPE that CCW Safe rejects me as I know NOTHING about mounting a successful criminal defense. 🙂

Sticking purely to the dollar amount of defense coverage available, it is technically a tie but I lean towards CCW Safe as the dollars have a chance of being spent more wisely.

Winner: Tie 

CCW Safe vs US Law Shield: Features

If you’re keeping score so far, US Law Shield has won on membership cost and it has tied with CCW Safe on the dollar amount of legal defense coverage.

However, CCW Safe really starts to pull ahead when we look at other coverages and features. This is significant – after all, you’re looking for protection here.

I think that there are three “must have” features when it comes to choosing which CCW Insurance company is right for you and your family. CCW Safe offers all three whereas US Law Shield only offers one of the three.

Technically, this should disqualify US Law Shield from my recommendation but you’re here to see US Law Shield compared to CCW Safe so we’ll continue.

My “Big 3” requirements are:

1. Ability to choose your own attorney,
2. Money up front, and
3. A daily “per diem” while in trial

For a deeper discussion of these elements, feel free to check out 3 CCW Insurance Must Haves. We’ll compare these main 3 and also some more features of CCW Safe vs US Law Shield here.

Picking your own attorney: US Law Shield requires you to use their attorney. The attorney they choose is probably competent but I don’t like not being able to choose who is representing me and possibly the last line of defense for my freedom. If the attorney representing me is clearly making mistakes, isn’t motivated to represent me (possibly motivated by saving costs for who actually hired them), or I just don’t get along with them, I want the right to fire them and find someone else.

Money up front: Both providers give you the money you need up front – this is important. Trials can easily get into a couple hundred thousand dollars and if you have that kind of money available to be used for your defense, maybe concealed carry insurance isn’t right for you.

Daily “per diem” rate: While in trial, you’re not going to be able to work and earn money for you or your family. Getting a daily amount can go a long way – especially if you’re in trial for months.

CCW Safe offers a per diem and also a lost-wages reimbursement on some plans whereas US Law Shield doesn’t offer anything.

Bail: CCW Safe’s highest plan offers up to $1 million in bail bond coverage and US Law Shield has recently increased their coverage for the bail bond add-on to $50k. If you live in, Kansas, Oregon, Vermont, or Washington, however, bail bond coverage is not provided by US Law Shield. Bail coverage is important unless you don’t mind sitting in jail until your trial is over.

Expert Witnesses and Private Investigators: These two types of professionals are important to have as part of your team because they can literally make or break your case for you. Unfortunately, they can be very expensive. Although US Law Shield offers unlimited legal defense cost, none of the money from US Law Shield goes towards investigators and expert witnesses are only covered if you live in TX, OK, or PA.

Winner: CCW Safe

CCW Safe vs US Law Shield: Extra Resources

This is really hard to compare because both the CCW Safe and US Law Shield offer many additional resources from online training, seminars, and publications.

I think it is fair to say that the extra resources offered by both companies are a good compliment to your membership.

Winner: Tie

CCW Safe vs US Law Shield Comparison Conclusion

If you’ve kept score so far, it looks like we have a tie – US Law Shield wins on cost and CCW Safe wins on features while they each tied on defense coverage amounts and extra resources.

Despite that, the arbitrary categories/scores I gave above alone don’t quite paint an accurate picture of these two companies.

Again, I can’t tell you whether you should get concealed carry insurance nor which company would be right for your particular situation. However, if you could afford either and you asked me to choose between the CCW Safe and US Law Shield, I would tell you to go with the CCW Safe… hands down.

But why?

First, US Law Shield doesn’t provide two of my three “must haves.” Being able to choose your legal representation is fundamental – you should select the best attorney that fits you and you should be able to fire them if you don’t like your defense.

Second, other important features like bail bond funding and expert witnesses are only covered by US Law Shield if you live in one of the three states in which they’re available. And things like investigator fees and stolen firearm cost aren’t covered at all.

Here’s the simplest summary I can give: if you only want to consider US Law Shield and CCW Safe as options and you want the most legal defense money for the lowest cost, then US Law Shield is for you. However, if you want to have more say in where that money is spent defending you and you want some expensive things like bail, experts, and investigators covered, then you should go with CCW Safe.