I read Jordan Furlong's recent article,
"What Makes Uber Tick, and What Lawyers Can Learn from It". He makes
some good points, but, in my opinion, didn't go quite far enough. I
view all of this from the other side of the lens.
Furlong's
article states: " ... lawyers should consider Uber a powerful
illustration of how and why traditional providers lose control of
their markets. Uber doesn’t succeed because its rides are cheaper,
or not primarily because of that. It succeeds because it corrects the
many flaws in the traditional taxi model."
The
world needs lawyers to represent and give legal advice. But,
sometimes, people only need documents. The world needs document
preparers to do just that - responsively, conveniently, and at a
reasonable cost.
When
a consumer hires a document preparer for divorce documents, for
instance, the necessary documents are almost always prepared for a
flat fee. Period. Consumers know before they pay, exactly how much
the service will cost, and exactly what services they can expect to
receive.
Lawyers
traditionally charge by the almighty billable hour. Statewide,
lawyers rates average over $200. per hour. Besides the fact that many
litigants earn less than $200 per day, the billable hour practice is
confusing and those minutes and minutiae quickly add up to exorbitant
amounts and whoops there goes the retainer. Consumers don't know
until they find out the hard way that their lawyer is going to bill
them against the retainer for every email, every phone call, every
document the lawyer reads related to their case, every document
prepared in their case, every out of pocket expense, paralegal fees
billed out at anywhere from $100 to $200 per hour, mediation,
consultation, and court appearances. And before the client knows it,
its time for mediation or a court hearing, and the lawyer is asking
for more fees. If the consumer has no more lawyer money to spend, he
goes it alone, pro se. And, that consumer, is usually not happy about
the experience. Small wonder that lawyers have such a terrible
reputation.
It
happens all the time, that a lawyer withdraws at just these critical
junctures, because the client has no more money to spend. Even though
it is considered unethical for a lawyer to leave their client high
and dry in this manner ... it happens all the time.
I
agree with Furlong that no one wants to see lawyers disappear
entirely, just as it is not practical for taxis to be replaced
entirely by Uber drivers. There is a place in the market for taxis
and Uber drivers; lawyers and document preparers. Consumers who
choose Uber over a taxi do so for customer service, convenience, and
price. In Uber's case the price for services may be similar to a taxi
ride. Lawyer fees and document preparer fees are often miles apart.
Document preparers often charge just 10% of what a lawyer would
charge. Routine documents for things like, divorce and bankruptcy are
the handiest comparisons.
For
example, bankruptcy petition preparers charge around $200 to prepare
the thirty some odd documents for a bankruptcy; lawyers typically
charge around $2000. Initiating a Florida divorce with a lawyer may
begin with a retainer of anywhere from $1500 to $10,000. Document
preparers charge between $99 and $500. Initiating a divorce requires
paperwork, and to be fair to lawyers in the comparison, lawyers
services may also include legal advice and court appearances. At the
low end for divorce lawyer's fees, $1500., if a client receives for
that money - document preparation, service of process, filing fees,
and some advice - he's actually done well. And the services he
received, at least as far as price, would be roughly comparable to a
legal document preparer. A document preparer at the high end,
preparing divorce documents for $500, plus services of process
(around $75), plus filing fee ($408. in most counties) and no advice
or representation is about $900 - $600 less than the low end lawyer.
So that consumer has $600 left to spend on legal consultations, or
court appearances.
Furlong's
article goes on to mention some partial solutions to delivery of
legal services, listing some referral sources and alternate legal
service providers. The Florida Supreme Court Commission on Access to
Justice repeatedly touts technological solutions as the path to
legal access, and have been discussing better technology solutions
for the past two years.
We,
FALDP, have developed our own technology solution. Our FALDP Document Portal allows consumers to prepare their own documents online for a
small fee. As far as we have found, our site works better than any of
the court sites, or private sector sites in Florida. For $99
consumers have unlimited use for one month to prepare their own
family law documents. The consumer enters their information once into
a questionnaire, form fields automatically fill throughout the form
set, then the consumer can either save the completed forms to their
computer or print them out. All forms are based on Florida Supreme
court approved family law forms.
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| www.FALDP-DocumentPortal.org |
Furlong
states: "Lawyers, like cab drivers, are useful and capable
service providers who nonetheless are sabotaging themselves through
their own lousy delivery models."
Lawyers
and taxis have been around for centuries. Uber and document preparers
were born to offer services more conveniently, with better customer
service, and crystal clear price transparency.
The
customer is the most important part of any business. And if a
business doesn't take care of their customers -- someone else will.
