I know there are lots of efforts to
do unbundled services, flat pricing to make the pricing of lawyers more accessible.
Forrest, you talked about one of the benefits being that when
you do unbundled services you get paid upfront and you're not carrying bills from your clients.
Sam Glover: By way of moving to a close here, where should lawyers go for a resource if they want to learn more about how to
do unbundling services?
Not exact matches
Don't be sucked in by low - fare airline pricing as they
unbundle everything, and when you add in all the extra fees, you might be better off flying a full -
service carrier.
Unbundling (or limited scope representation as it is commonly referred to in the U.S.) is becoming more recognized and highlighted as a key tool to increase access to justice, particularly for those who
do not qualify for legal aid
services but can not afford full representation (the CBA, NAC and Macfarlane reports for example).
Clearly it
does, both by providing access to legal resources and by providing access to direct legal
services offered in
unbundled chunks at affordable prices.
Some of our
services remain eligible for legal aid; those that are not are provided at a fixed price, so people need not fear the uncertainty of not knowing what the
service will cost them...; We offer modular [
unbundled]
services, so that we can put together bespoke packages that suit everyone's pocket; We offer extended
services by phone and email, so that people who
do not want to come into an office don't need to (whether it's because they are simply busy or because they've been subjected to violence and prefer to remain in a place where they know they are safe); We offer flexible hours, including evenings and weekends; We demystify law by talking to clients in plain English...
Some of the above examples of access to justice are those that are commonly predicted by advocates of alternative structures: business models that facilitate reduced and fixed price legal
services and / or
unbundling, technology that enables standardization and improved processes to handle large volumes of cases or contracts, branding that reduces the client's search costs and increases their level of trust, multidisciplinary
services that significantly ease the client experience notably because they
do not need to assemble or coordinate different streams of work.
«I think this process gives the client a degree of control that lawyers don't normally give clients,» Joel Miller is quoted as saying about
unbundled legal
services.
Don't bother buying
unbundled legal
services if all you know is «I need to talk with a lawyer.»
As many of you know,
unbundled legal
services help to fill the gap for people who
do not qualify for legal aid and can not afford full representation.
[5] It presents three types of solutions: (1) various kinds of self - help, including the «
unbundling» of legal
services — the client
does more, as a result the lawyer
does less; (2) help by way of a greater use of law students, paralegals, and volunteer workers; and, (3) greater use of pro bono and low bono legal
services (free and low paid legal
services provided by lawyers).
Though Boyd estimates 40 per cent of the lawyers listed on the website
do family law as some or all of their practice, he says it's «all across» the profession, with many
doing wills and estates or corporate commercial
services in an
unbundled way as well.
This legal
services model
does not provide the same case or client management features or the functionality of a backend virtual law office for the attorney, but it
does generate leads to online clients who are interested in
unbundled legal
services.
If you have effectively priced your
unbundled services, it can be a good way to distinguish your firm from your competitors — and offer something that they
do not.
While the Law Society's Rules of Professional Conduct and the Paralegal Rules of Conduct
do not prohibit such retainers, there is nothing that expressly addresses limited retainers or
unbundling of
services.
Most
unbundled services are completed in one meeting and
do not take more than a couple of hours.
The beauty of
Unbundling Legal
Services is the client can pick and choose what (if any) actions they wish the lawyer to
do on their behalf and what they would prefer to themselves, resulting in significant cost - savings for the client.
Law firms are responding by providing
unbundled legal
services through different models, and
doing so without sacrificing revenue.
Personally I hope that the sheer amount of pushback against reciprocity doesn't derail the whole broad agenda, which includes things such as
unbundling of legal
services.
They are required to serve the public with a reasonable standard care and it doesn't matter whether they're
unbundled or they're full
service.
Then I think there's kind of this parallel track of issues to unpack where there's a distinction between small firms that have built their business model around being able to help solve problems of access, whether that's around
unbundling their
services or how they
do their pricing, or giving away some free
do it yourself content on the front end, whether that's also as part of their lead acquisition strategy or just as a
service to people who need it, is I think separate from people who then volunteer their time in pro bono efforts, or people who donate their money to legal charitable causes.
They are of three types: (1) self - help programs; (2) «cutting costs by cutting competence» programs, by way of greater use of, students, paralegals, and «
unbundled» legal
services, wherein the client
does more with the intended result that the cost will be lower because the lawyer
does less; and, (3) pro bono charity, which, albeit commendable, is too small to have any significant impact upon the volume of legal
services needed.
How
do you price your
unbundled services and how
do you talk about that with clients?
Generally, the fact of a limited scope retainer, aka an
unbundled legal
service,
does not detract from the professional obligations of the lawyer such as competency, confidentiality, ethics and the avoidance of conflicts of interests.
In a 2012 survey of Alberta family law lawyers (PDF), the Canadian Research Institute for Law and the Family found that 40 % of its respondents never offer
unbundled services, and that those who
do work on such a basis
did so in an average of only 12 % of their cases.
One of the major advantages of
unbundled legal
services is to provide at least some legal
services for those who simply can not afford full representation by a lawyer and
do not meet eligibility guidelines for legal aid coverage.
«What we're trying to
do is operate a lightweight, customer / client - focused law firm which uses technology to allow us to deliver cost - effective,
unbundled services and, in
doing so, actually increase the amount of direct contact we have with clients, and so clients are experiencing this approach,» Mangan says.
Limited retainers and possible
unbundling of legal
services will bring more challenges for lawyers to communicate as clearly as possible about what they are retained to
do and not retained to
do, as well as the potential consequences of what they're not being retained to
do.
All we can
do is limit the scope of representation — generally called
unbundling legal
services.
«Part of the solution will be to
unbundle corporate legal
services: less - expensive lawyers or paralegals (whether in Peoria or Bangalore)
doing only the highest tasks justifying their rates.
You don't need to charge a flat fee for every
unbundled service, but it often makes sense.
Of course, that doesn't mean every legal
service should be
unbundled.
But Embry believes that the work in a mass tort case can be «
unbundled» so that much of the commodity type work is
done by alternative legal
service providers at flat fees.
Another topic is online «deals» and
unbundled services: To what extent
do online deals or other
unbundled offers implicate ethics rules around advertising, trust accounts, excessive fees, conflicts and the duty of competence?
They are of three types: ( 1 ) self - help programs; ( 2 ) «cutting costs by cutting competence» programs, by way of greater use of, students, paralegals, and «
unbundled» legal
services, wherein the client
does more with the intended result that the cost will be lower because the lawyer
does less; and, ( 3 ) pro bono charity, which, albeit commendable, is too small to have any significant impact upon the volume of legal
services needed.
Unbundling legal
services can be a dirty word to some bar associations and regulators, who would like to require a lawyer
do all the work from beginning to end — and perhaps maintain the lawyer mononopoly while limiting
services.
If the lawyer
does not educate the client about the difference between full
services and
unbundled, then the client receiving
unbundled services may not clearly understand how much work they will be responsible or that they would be better off having an attorney handle even the footwork in their matter.
Second, if the lawyer
does not thoroughly vet out the legal need of the client ahead of time in the intake process, it is possible that there will be extraneous circumstances that will come up to make the work more appropriate for full
service representation than
unbundled.
However, traditional law firms are just as equally capable of delivering
unbundled services and many have
done so for years but just don't call it that.
Unbundled legal
services which focus on litigation efforts
do little to actually resolve disputes.
Many self - represented family litigants seeking
unbundled legal
services do not understand the various processes that are available to assist them in resolving their disputes.
Fortunately, there is much that family lawyers can
do to improve the situation, including offering settlement - oriented
unbundled legal
services as part of our practices.
The easy to read step - by - step format covers setting up the office, what to
do when the client walks in, marketing, application to substantive fields of law,
unbundling on the internet, ethics and how to deliver
unbundled services without being sued.
«
Unbundled» legal
services, also known as «limited legal
services» or «discrete task representation,» is using your lawyer for what only a lawyer can
do.
Because the «
unbundled legal
services» and «virtual law firm» concept is so new, our law firm network
does not yet cover all 50 states.
How
do we reach law students, newly - admitted lawyers and even seasoned practitioners to provide a broader platform of
unbundled legal
services and maybe some experimentation?
What
do we know about the practitioner's experience with
unbundled legal
services?
They identify the types of cases their office offers
unbundled services for and which ones they don't.
When you hire a lawyer, you can pay them to
do all the work, or you can pay for
Unbundled Legal
Services (see below).