Re: Unbundled Legal Services

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In a sense I am unqualified to respond and I am definitely late,
but I will nevertheless provide my opinion for whatever it is
worth. I have read a book about unbundling by Forest Mosten. I have
also read a book by Nolo Press about independent paralegal
services. There is an ironic similarity in the problems with these
two approaches.

Non-lawyers providing "typing services" must not give legal advice
and must encourage customers to do reading on their own. Lawyers
providing unbundled or discrete legal services must also ask that
clients use self-help for whatever services the lawyer will not be
providing. The reality is that many non-lawyer services do give
legal advice either intentionally or inadvertantly.

By the same token, one of the reasons some lawyers must unbundle is
to compete with these non-lawyer services. Mosten says that he
never charges less than his usual hourly fee and that many clients
end up requesting "full service" when they realize all the
responsibility that is on their shoulders when the lawyer is not
providing full service. The lawyers unbundling must take pains to
be compliant with professional responsibility issues as well.

The bottom line is that there is an ineveitable perception of legal
services as commodities and that results in many believing that
commodity is over-priced. It could be that unbundling is what is
needed for people to realize that they are receivin much more than
a commodity when they hire a "full service" lawyer. On the other
hand, there has not been enough research to show that legal health
can be obtained in a preventive manner rather than reactive.

So whether the perception of the legal profession has been unfairly
devalued or whether it has heretofore been unrealistically
overvalued, there are many lawyers complaining that they do not
have enough clients, and there are many potential clients who claim
they cannot afford a lawyer. So the point at which supply equals
demand (the equilibrium point) indicates a need for lower priced
legal services for many.

Re: Unbundled Legal Services, 9/03/03, by rrr.

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