Daily Business Review
July 12, 2005

Rules that allow lawyers to ""unbundle"" their services, to represent typically cash-strapped clients for parts of their litigation, are spreading across the United States. In the past six years, nine states, Florida, Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Nevada, New Mexico, Washington and Wyoming, have adopted unbundling rules. Proponents argue that unbundling provides a public service to clients who would not otherwise have any legal representation.

They say it is also a potential stream of untapped revenue for law firms. Critics counter that clients are better served when represented throughout their litigation. The new rules also facilitate and sanction unbundling for volunteer and legal services attorneys who had long provided unbundled services, called "limited-scope representation."

The unbundling of services targets pro se clients whose cases are most often found in family, small claims, housing, traffic and misdemeanor courts. "Some states - such as California, Washington and Florida  - have courthouse facilitators to assist with detailed procedural information and one-on-one form preparation" for pro se clients, said William Hornsby, staff counsel to the American Bar Association Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services.