By: Rick D. Massey, J.D.Copyright © 2009
I am not incredibly old. But I do remember full-service gas stations. All you had to do was pull up at the pump. They were watching for you inside. They would come running out before you had time to shut off the engine. They would wash your windshield, check your radiator and your oil, inflate your tires and ask "fill'er up?" while you sat there waiting for their next question.
As I recall, these full service gas stations did not move into extinction because no one wanted to offer the service anymore. The world changed around them. When gas jumped to more than twenty-five cents a gallon, forward thinking gas station owners found a way to satisfy their customers' desperate quest to pay less for a tank of gas. As it turned out most people were perfectly capable of pumping their own gas and were more than willing to do it if it didn't cost so much to fill up their tanks.
As an attorney who deals with business people every day, I have watched the winds of change transforming every profession. And the practice of law is no exception. People are better educated and in a better position to do things for themselves than they were even a few years ago.
Legal services are very expensive. According to a 2008 survey of 127 law firms, the national average exceeds $350 per hour – and actually increased at the same time the economy was rushing down the tubes for most businesses. In the St. Louis area, it is virtually impossible to get a lawyer to take even a small case for less than a $1,500 retainer. And at $175 to $250 or more per hour it doesn't take long to burn through that first retainer payment. But do these services have to be so expensive? The secret is out. They really don’t have to be. And people do have options.
The Premium Services of Traditional Law Firms are Beyond the Reach of Many Who Need Legal Services
Does it really make sense to pay for legal services that are still based on a pricing model that was designed to accommodate the business world before word processors, e-mail, data bases, document merge programs, laser printers, and on-line legal research?
Does it really make sense to pay for legal services that are still based on a pricing model that was designed to accommodate the business world before word processors, e-mail, data bases, document merge programs, laser printers, and on-line legal research?
I was negotiating a legal settlement with an attorney for one of the big-name law firms several years ago. The gentlemen was very professional, extremely bright, and obviously had years of legal experience under his belt. However, he was definitely “old school.” Because I was General Counsel for the client I represented in this transaction, he made particular assumptions about me – assumptions that may have been true twenty years ago, but are not true today. He had spoken with my paralegal earlier in the process, but I guess he couldn’t remember her name. “Just have your girl draw this up and send it to me, and we should be good to go”, he said. He had no idea that I draft my own legal documents because I don’t dictate documents and letters, and I can do it myself in the same amount of time it would take to communicate what I wanted to someone else.
On the other hand, once I get something started, I often ask my paralegal to review, edit and format the documents because she is better at all of this than I am and can do it in a fraction of the time. Even so, all of this will take her infinitely less time today than it would have with the best technology that was available when we were watching Perry Mason dictate his letters to Della Street. It is time for the legal profession to come to grips with the fact that people don’t work the same way in 2009 as they did in 1979.
Missouri Officially Adopts a Rational Solution
As is the case with any profession, the prospect of change is perceived as a threat by many old-timers, and the idea of providing legal services in a more cost efficient way by “unbundling” the mix of legal services provided by attorneys has not exactly been welcomed by the legal community. The concept is not new. But until recently the law has been unclear. The manner and extent to which these services should be permitted varied between different Missouri courts and judges.
On December 21, 2007, the Missouri Supreme Court adopted rule changes to clarify the boundaries lawyers must follow in offering limited scope representation to their client. The final amendments to the new rules became effective on July 1, 2008. While some attorneys continue to be highly skeptical of this approach, others have embraced these changes as an exciting opportunity for change to benefit individuals, business people, and the legal profession.
Unbundled legal services are segments of legal representation that are carved out and offered in blocks that may be purchased separately or partially performed by the client. Because lawyers and clients can limit the scope of the attorney's representation, clients can decide how much or how little they want to participate in the process. The component portions of legal representation traditionally reserved exclusively to lawyers such as performing legal research, gathering of facts, drafting and responding to discovery, negotiation, drafting of court documents, trial preparation and court representation may now be allocated between the lawyer and the client, based on the client's education, comfort level, and ability to pay.
The lawyer is still responsible for advising the client and for letting the client know if the case is becoming too complex for a non-lawyer to handle. But this gives clients more control over their own case than ever before. More importantly, it makes the courts available to many people who would never have their day in court if making that happen depended on their ability to finance every aspect of the case.
In the future, taking a more active role in one's own legal services will be as natural as purchasing and using a home pregnancy kit, or pumping your own gas. That future is approaching fast.
Posts
