Jayson R. Elliott

“Unbundled services” is a term commonly used to refer to limited scope representation offered by attorneys.

An attorney who offers limited scope representation can provide affordable legal assistance by helping you with certain stages of your case, rather than handling your case from start to finish. For example, you can hire the attorney to make a court appearance, to assist in the preparation of specific documents for your case, to review and advise you on your actions and strategies during your case, or some combination of those examples.

Attorneys offer unbundled services in many different areas of law. Not all attorneys offer limited scope representation and not all attorneys who offer limited scope representation also offer full scope (beginning to end) representation. Unless you are certain that you will not need further assistance it is important, when hiring a limited scope attorney, that that attorney also provides full scope services. In the even that your care requires more services you do not want to have to hire a new attorney and pay them to get “up-to-speed” on your case before they can start representing you.

If you hire an attorney to perform limited scope work, the attorney will be responsible only for that specific segment of work that you have agreed to. The attorney will not be assuming responsibility for handling your case in its entirety. It is your responsibility, with the attorneys help, to make sure that you fully understand what parts of your case the attorney will and will not be responsible for.

At Bay Legal we provide limited scope services in many areas of the law including areas that are not represented on the website. Please contact us or book a free 20 minute appointment if you are considering any limited scope services.

What are Unbundled / limited scope representation services?

Unbundled / Limited scope representation services are growing in popularity, it is a way that an attorney can help you with part of your case while you handle the rest of your case. For example:

1. You can consult with an attorney to prepare or review your paperwork, but attend the hearing yourself;

2. You can represent yourself through the whole case, and periodically consult with an attorney who can coach you on the law, procedures and strategy;

3. You can do the preparation yourself and hire an attorney just to make the court appearance for you;

4. You may want to do your own investigation of the facts (“discovery”) and ask the attorney to assist you in putting the information in a format which is useful to the court;

5. You may ask the attorney to be on “standby” while you attend the settlement conference yourself.

With limited scope assistance, you may be able to handle the whole case yourself, except for a few technical areas, such as “law and motion,” where an attorney can help you. It really is between you and your attorney to decide how much of your case you hire him or her to do. If you do this, it is important to keep returning to the same attorney. Otherwise, you are paying someone new to get up to speed on your case each time you consult.

Some areas of the law and procedure are extremely technical, and it is rare for non-attorneys to effectively handle them. Among these are motions to compel discovery, motions attacking the pleadings or summary judgment motions, and preparing trial briefs. Also included are substantive areas of law that generally require legal expertise or cases where the offers of proof or burden of proof may be difficult or complicated, such as someone’s intent, a breach of the duty of care in a professional negligence suit, the existence of a verbal agreement, competing claims to title to real property, etc. You will almost certainly need extensive assistance from, or often full representation by, an attorney if your case involves any of these issues.