USCCA vs US Law Shield: Which CCW Insurance Do We Prefer?

USCCA and US Law Shield have already been ranked in our Concealed Carry Insurance Comparison but some people have asked for a direct comparison of both even though CCW Safe took the #1 spot.

In this USCCA 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.

USCCA vs US Law Shield: Which is the Best?

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

Well, that’s near impossible for me to answer for a few reasons:

First, I don’t know your risk tolerance, budget for such a product, and your financial situation to handle defending yourself against criminal and/or civil court cases. Although I hope to help you make a decision on which company you should go with, 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 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 USCCA 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 USCCA and US Law Shield, then you should know that US Law Shield ranked last in our Best CCW Insurance comparison and USCCA, now that they have recently changed their plan/coverage, ranks second to last.  However, between these two only, I recommend you consider USCCA.

If you’re open to considering all options for legal self defense protection, we think that the best CCW insurance option is CCW Safe.

USCCA: Our Take

The USCCA is the big-dog in the self defense legal protection space.  They claim the largest number of members, they have the biggest organization, and a ton of training resources.

And, although they are the most expensive option available, members get a lot of training resources and support for the money. But, with their recent change in their plan/coverage, they are not the best value for leagl protection.

Things we love about USSCA: Tons of training and resources, highest daily “per diem” amount (more on that below) and they satisfy all three of our “must-have requirements.”

Things we’d change if we could: The total defense coverage dollar amounts are limited, they now treat these limits that they’ll pay to protect you as “confidential,” they reserve the right to make you pay back everything if you get a guilty verdit (where others offer support for an appeal), and a few other issues we found in their new policy .

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

USCCA Pros and Cons

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 USCCA 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

USCCA vs US Law Shield: Pricing

For a single member basic plan, US Law Shield is less expensive than USCCA.

However, the US Law Shield basic plans is missing some features that they charge extra for if you’d like to add them on.

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 USCCA’s lowest tier plan.

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. So, let’s explore more.

USCCA vs US Law Shield: Defense Coverage

This one seems straight forward, but it is tough to compare the amount of money provided for legal defense without addressing one of our biggest issues with US Law Shield – not being able to pick your own attorney.

Also, now that the USCCA has changed their plan/coverage, they no longer publish their limits. This is one of the main reasons they dropped so much in our comparison of the best CCW insurance.

Their new policy repetedly references dollar amount limits for coverage but the policy doesn’t share the numbers. When we asked why the USCCA removed their coverage dollar amounts from the policy and what the current amount swere, we were told that the limits were “confidential.”

So, we’ve included the most recently published amounts by USCCA as we believe through phone calls with them that the amounts are the same/similar. However, another change with USCCA is that their highest tier plan doesn’t offer any more legal protection coverage than their lowest plan.

As you can see, US Law Shield does not limit your legal defense coverage dollar amount while USCCA does. However, USCCA does not limit which attorney you can use (mostly). With USCCA’s recent changes, they now require that whatever attorney you choose must agree to their hourly rate (unknown) and their “litigation guidlines” (also unkown).

Sticking purely to the dollar amount of defense coverage available, US Law Shield wins.

Winner: US Law Shield 

USCCA vs US Law Shield: Features

If you’re keeping score so far, US Law Shield has won on both membership cost and dollar amount of legal defense coverage.

However, USCCA really pulls ahead when we look at other coverages and features.

As we mentioned above, I think that there are three “must have” features when it comes to picking CCW Insurance. USCCA offers all three whereas US Law Shield only offers one of the three.

Technically, this should disqualify them from my recommendation but you’re here to see US Law Shield compared to USCCA 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 USCCA vs US Law Shield here.

Picking your own attorney: US Law Shield requires you to use their attorney. Although the attorney they choose is almost surely more competent to defend you in a criminal trial than I am, I want to be able to choose an attorney that I like and trust (and one that I can fire if I don’t think they are representing me well).

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.

USCCA offers the highest amount of any other provider while US Law Shield doesn’t offer anything.

Bail: The USCCA’s highest plan offers up to $500k 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 and they can be very expensive. Although US Law Shield offers unlimited legal defense cost, none of it goes towards investigators and expert witnesses are only covered if you live in TX, OK, or PA.

Winner: USCCA

USCCA vs US Law Shield: Extra Resources

This is the hardest area to compare because both the USCCA 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

USCCA vs US Law Shield Comparison Conclusion

If you kept score so far, US Law Shield won two categories of comparison while USCCA only won one.

However, the arbitrary categories/score alone doesn’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 USCCA and US Law Shield, I would tell you to go with the USCCA… 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 USCCA 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 USCCA.

However, if you’re looking for what we think is the best legal protection, you should take a look at CCW Safe.