Pre-Paid's Pickle Gets Juicier

The long slide continues at Pre-Paid Legal Services (PPD Quote).

For a full year now, the embattled legal services company has failed to attract new customers and sales associates at the rapid clip of its glory days. During the third quarter, Pre-Paid added 15% fewer customers than it did a year ago. And it recruited less than half the number of sales associates -- who are crucial for future sales -- as it did in the same period last year.

Meanwhile, the company's overall customer base barely budged. Even after adding some 168,356 new customers, the company ended the quarter with only 15,000 more customers than it started with. ...