According to Sarah Castelhano Cassady's article, The Changing Landscape of California’s Legal Practice and Revisions to the Rules of Professional Conduct. How Limited Scope Representation and the Growth of Technology in the Legal Field Just May Jump Start Access for Underrepresented Californians, over the past thirty years, access to legal services in California and across the United States has sharply declined. "While corporate entities continue to benefit from legal services, and have in fact increased their retention of legal services over time, the representation of individuals in legal disputes has declined, leaving California courts overwhelmed with historically high numbers of self-represented parties."
According to a study commissioned by the State Bar, legal services access could be improved by attorneys entering the "gig economy" to connect with clients. A cost-saving benefit to clients is to obtain discrete services from an attorney that is tailored to the client's needs as opposed to the expense of full-service representation by an attorney.
Under the model of "unbundling" services (called "limited scope representation"), attorneys may offer services such as document preparation, legal research, or the drafting and filing of a complaint (as many Superior Courts in California permit or even require electronic filing) virtually from any location. And clients would be able to work with attorneys from their own home at their leisure.
To facilitate limited scope representation, the State Bar adopted a new Rule 1.2 of the Rules of Professional Conduct. According to Rule 1.2, the attorney may provide limited scope or "unbundled" services if: (1) the limited scope representation of the client is reasonable under the circumstances; (2) it is not otherwise prohibited; and (3) the client gives informed consent.
An attorney still has a duty to meet competency requirements and must follow other requirements according to the Rules (acting with diligence, appropriate skill and education, limitations on business transactions with clients, restrictions on an attorney's representation after forming a client relationship, etc.).
Under my own practice, limited scope representations make up close to 75% of my clients, and when a prospective client is looking for legal services, learning the cost to prepare a legal document will be $400 sounds much less alarming than hearing $200 per hour. Generally, with limited scope representation I am able to estimate the costs of representation to receive fair payment for my work, and my clients know up front the total fee for the work they need.
