Article. Abstract:
Unbundling
legal services, also termed limited-scope services, a la carte legal
services, discrete task representation, or disaggregated legal services,
is a form of delivering legal services in which the lawyer breaks down
the tasks associated with a legal matter and provides representation to
the client only pertaining to a clearly defined portion of the client’s
legal needs. The client accepts the responsibility for doing the
footwork for the remainder of the legal matter until reaching the
desired resolution. Providing unbundled legal services may be considered
as one solution to the access to justice problem in our country.
The
number of unmet legal needs continues to increase in the United States
as does the number of self-help individuals. The factors leading to this
large unmet need in legal assistance could stem from any number of
economic and political circumstances. While the scope of this article
cannot address the causes for this lack of access to justice, the
article will focus on potential methods of unbundling with technology to
provide greater access to legal services for the public regardless of
income level or societal status.