Unbundled legal services, also called discrete task representation, isn't
a novel idea, but its popularity is growing as many states revise their
ethical rules to officially allow this practice, which has existed
informally for a long time. Usually, unbundling is defined as an
agreement where the lawyer contracts with the client to do specific tasks
without taking on responsibility for the entire case.
Unbundling legal services benefits consumers in many ways. First, and
most importantly, it saves consumers money because they do many of the
tasks that a lawyer would normally bill for themselves. Additionally,
most lawyers agree to unbundle their services for a pay-as-you-go fee,
which eliminates the need for a consumer to come up with a large retainer
in the beginning. Another benefit of unbundling is that a client will
have more control over their case, which obviously appeals to people that
are used to being kept in the dark about their case or want to make their
own decisions about how to proceed.
There are currently less than a dozen states (including California,
Colorado, Florida, Maine, Washington and Wyoming) that explicitly allow
unbundling, and HALT is working to expand that number.
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