AOR’s Critique of USCCA Law!
August 17, 2026
USCCA has announced USCCA Law, described on its website as a national law firm dedicated exclusively to self-defense cases for USCCA members. Attorneys Andy Marcantel Marc J. Victor of The Attorneys For Freedom Law Firm read the announcement, the membership agreement, and the underlying insurance policy, and reached the opinion that the structure behind the product has not meaningfully changed.
Disclaimer: Everything below is opinion, formed by reading USCCA’s own publicly available contracts and marketing materials. We put those documents on screen in the video so you can read them yourself and reach your own conclusions.
Review Highlights
- What is USCCA Law?
- Do USCCA Law Attorneys Handle Only Self-Defense Cases?
- Does Attorney-Client Privilege Really Begin on the First Phone Call?
- What Does the USCCA Insurance Policy Actually Say?
- Does USCCA Cover Plea Deals?
- What Did USCCA Get Right?
- How Does Attorneys On Retainer Compare?
- Compare the Two For Yourself
- Key Takeaways
- Frequently Asked Questions
- What Should You Ask Before Choosing a Self-Defense Program?
What is USCCA Law?
USCCA Law is a newly announced firm presented as serving USCCA members exclusively. It launched with eight founding attorneys licensed in a combined total of 14 states, and it promises attorney-client privilege beginning with a member’s first phone call.
Andy and Marc say plainly that the concept is a good one. A firm whose attorneys handle nothing but self-defense cases is the right way to defend someone facing criminal charges and a likely civil suit after an incident. Their objection is to the execution. In their opinion, the attorneys staffing USCCA Law do not practice self-defense exclusively, which means the firm being advertised is not the firm that exists.
Do USCCA Law Attorneys Handle Only Self-Defense Cases?
In the attorneys’ opinion, no. Andy reports that all eight founding attorneys maintain their own full-time law firms, and that The Attorneys For Freedom team confirmed this by calling the publicly listed number for each firm. Each reportedly confirmed the attorney still practices at their firm and is still accepting new cases.
The practice areas were not limited to self-defense, or even to criminal defense. Andy lists DUI, tax fraud, divorce, personal injury, and intellectual property among what the team found.
“To form up a law firm that says all we do is self-defense and then staff it with lawyers who have their own practices, their own gigs, that’s their main thing where they’re doing all manner of other cases, and then say you have a self-defense law firm, in my opinion, is just a flat fraud.”
— Attorney Marc J. Victor
Both attorneys are emphatic on one point. Nothing here is a criticism of the individual attorneys involved. From what they can tell, these are experienced, competent lawyers who would represent clients well. The objection is to how the firm is presented to the market.
Does Attorney-Client Privilege Really Begin on the First Phone Call?
Andy and Marc are skeptical, and they note the claim contains a significant admission about everything that came before it.
“For all of our USCCA members up until this point, all of those calls you’ve had, those emergency calls where you’re calling after the self-defense incident…all of those have been completely discoverable.”
— Attorney Andy Marcantel
For privilege to attach, the person answering generally has to be an employee or agent of the law firm. When the team called the number listed on the USCCA Law site, the person who answered was an employee of Delta Defense, the insurance broker. The address listed for USCCA Law is also the same address as Delta Defense headquarters. Andy says that when the team looked, it was unable to confirm the firm’s existence through the State Bar.
The structural problem, in Andy’s view, arrives after that first call.
“The insurance company’s still calling all the shots here in terms of coverage. So the lawyer has to turn around and talk to the insurance company to give them privileged information, which very well might waive the privilege at that point.”
— Attorney Andy Marcantel
An attorney owes a duty of zealous representation to their client. If that attorney is also reporting case facts to the entity deciding whether to pay, and one of those facts triggers a denial, the client’s interest and the reporting obligation point in opposite directions.
What Does the USCCA Insurance Policy Actually Say?
The provisions Andy and Marc flag:
- All coverage is subject to the terms, conditions, and exclusions of the actual policy, and USCCA does not guarantee the accuracy of statements on its own website.
- Membership terms can change at any time without notice.
- A criminal acts exclusion remains, and the insurance company decides whether self-defense applies. Not a judge, and not the attorneys at USCCA Law.
- The member must authorize the insurance company to obtain all legal papers and cooperate with its investigation.
- The insurance company assigns the attorney, who must agree to reporting and billing guidelines that are not published. A member who uses an attorney outside those guidelines is capped at $100,000, covering fees and expenses combined.
- New Jersey, New York, and Washington are excluded.
“$100,000 is not going to get you very far in a serious case. Say you’re charged with a serious, aggravated assault case that goes to trial. That’s not even going to cover that.”
— Attorney Marc J. Victor
Does USCCA Cover Plea Deals?
Coverage survives a plea unless the plea is a crime of violence, and in the attorneys’ opinion, that exception covers essentially every charge available in a self-defense case.
USCCA previously dropped members who accepted plea deals. Attorneys For Freedom pushed back publicly for years on the grounds that any criminal defense attorney knows a plea is frequently the best available outcome for a client facing decades of exposure. Well over 90% of criminal cases are resolved by plea. USCCA later announced plea deal coverage, and Andy and Marc read the revised language and found the exception.
The policy defines crimes of violence to include the use, attempted use, or threatened use of unlawful force against a person or the property of another, plus anything resulting in bodily injury to another person. A reduction from a major violent felony to a misdemeanor assault is a significant win for a client. It is also a crime of violence under that definition.
“They made the change, as you pointed out, but then they stuck this Grand Canyon of an exception.”
— Attorney Marc J. Victor
The policy also contains a recoupment clause permitting the insurance company to pursue the insured money already paid to the attorney. As Andy and Marc read it, a member weighing a recommended plea would also be weighing the loss of coverage and a possible demand for fees already spent.
What Did USCCA Get Right?
Two things. If USCCA Law has found a way to make that first phone call privileged, that is an improvement over what came before, even though it still starts later than privilege attaching signup.
The current insurance contract also appears to have dropped several prior exclusions, including illegal weapons, prohibited possessors, and sensitive areas. Marc would prefer an affirmative list of non-exclusions, the way Attorneys On Retainer states them, but he calls the removal a move in the right direction.
Key Takeaways
- Andy and Marc report that USCCA Law’s eight founding attorneys each maintain a separate full-time practice handling non-self-defense matters, which is why they consider the “exclusively self-defense” framing misleading.
- On the attorneys’ reading of the policy, coverage decisions still rest with Universal Fire and Casualty Insurance Company, which retains a criminal acts exclusion.
- The revised plea deal coverage carries a crime of violence exception that, in the attorneys’ opinion, covers essentially every charge a self-defense client could plead to.
- Attorneys On Retainer is a law firm retainer, not insurance. Members contract directly with The Attorneys For Freedom Law Firm, and coverage decisions are made in-house by the attorneys who defend the case.
How Does Attorneys On Retainer Compare?
The main difference is who holds the relationship and who makes the coverage decision. Attorneys On Retainer is a retainer with a law firm, not an insurance company.
You become a client at signup. Privilege attaches at enrollment, not at the moment of an emergency, which means the emergency contact form covering community ties, work history, and prior criminal history is protected before anything happens.
Every attorney at the firm handles self-defense cases only. No side practices. Marc J. Victor, Elizabeth Mullins, Joey Hamby, and Howard Snader are Certified Criminal Law Specialists, making The Attorneys For Freedom Law Firm the only firm in Arizona with four.
Coverage decisions are made in-house by the attorneys who defend the case, with no privileged information moving between entities to secure a determination.
A civil defense attorney is involved from the first call, because the civil suit is a separate fight from the criminal case.
Under the Legal Services Agreement, and subject to its terms and conditions, the firm commits to sending four attorneys to any state during a criminal felony case. Local counsel is admitted in the client’s jurisdiction, plus three Attorneys For Freedom attorneys admitted pro hac vice.
Emergency calls are covered 24/7 by the full strike force team. The firm has been in business since 1997 and has handled hundreds of these.
Compare the Two For Yourself
Read USCCA’s membership agreement and insurance policy. Then read ours. We send the full contract to every member, and we are happy to have it compared to anything else on the market.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Attorneys On Retainer insurance?
No. It is a legal services agreement with The Attorneys For Freedom Law Firm. Members become clients of the firm, and the firm makes all coverage decisions rather than routing them to an insurance carrier.
Does Attorneys On Retainer drop clients who accept plea deals?
No. The firm’s position is that a plea is frequently the best available outcome for a client, and it has never dropped a client for accepting one.
Can I read the contract before joining?
Yes. Every member receives the full agreement, along with a video of Marc J. Victor reading it aloud in its entirety.
What Should You Ask Before Choosing a Self-Defense Program?
Ask these of us and ask them of everyone else you are considering:
- Is this insurance or a retainer with a law firm? Who is the carrier?
- Who decides whether my case is covered, and who is accountable if that decision is wrong?
- When does attorney-client privilege attach?
- What happens to my coverage if my attorney recommends a plea?
- Can I read the full contract before I join?
To review the program, visit the Attorneys On Retainer self-defense program. To learn about the firm behind it, visit The Attorneys For Freedom Law Firm.
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