The time has come for
legal document preparers to be known as the best thing since sliced
bread and just as commonplace. The push pull of document preparers
grasp on the market place has been going on for decades. Document
preparers know, consumers know, judges know, and even attorneys know
that our services are part of the legal landscape. Legal document
preparers struggle to continue their work offering low cost
alternatives to consumers. The Florida Bar wishes we did not exist.
But, if wishes were horses …
… beggars would ride.
Document preparers do not
take work away from attorneys. The type of legal service that
document preparers provide is not the same as what an attorney
provides. Document preparers prepare documents – forms. Document
preparers do not give legal advice. Document preparers do not appear
in court. Many of the consumers who use document preparers would not
use an attorney anyway, either because of the expense, or the
consumer's belief in the old saying – once bitten twice shy.
Traditionally, consumers'
knee jerk reaction when faced with any legal matter is to hire an
attorney. There is a strong and pervasive bias stemming from the
traditional legal establishment that every consumer needs an attorney
for every legal matter. This presumption is just not true. Believe it
or not, some legal matters are not contested and are documents only.
Many consumers are sophisticated enough to research and find
information about substantive law as needed. Consumers struggle with
formatting and procedure. And the fact remains, sometimes it is just
not possible or practical to pay attorney's fees.
So here we are.
I came across an article
in the Denver Business Journal. It was a panel interview about market
disruptors. One of the panelists was Tom Romer of Greenberg
Traurig. Greenberg Traurig is an international law firm with more
than 2,000 attorneys in 38 offices in the United States, Latin
America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. GT has been recognized for
its philanthropic giving, was named the largest firm in the U.S. by
Law360 in 2017, and is among the Top 20 on the 2017 Am Law Global
100.
Here is what Mr. Romer
said:
“How has innovation
affected current business social and legal paradigms?
ROMER: The
paradigm shift that is happening in law is really interesting. The
legal industry is basically a guild. We try to prevent
competition and of course, protect legal service users, by
prohibiting the unauthorized practice of law. Which means that
no one can offer legal services without a law license. However,
companies are disrupting that model and appear not to follow those
rules. It’s similar to how ride share companies appeared to ignore
public transportation regulations and created a business model that
regulators said wasn’t compliant. But suddenly, everyone was using
ride share companies and regulators had to figure out a way to
approve it. If lawyers are so naïve as to think our little guild is
going to protect us for the next 10 or 15 years, we’re going to
wake up and see something new in the marketplace that is so popular
our regulators will have to accept it even if it could be technically
unauthorized practice of law. “
My takeaway is that legal document preparers have to become better
known. Even though document preparers have been around for decades,
we fail in making our services widely known. Part of the reason for
that failure is the urge or need to fly under the radar to avoid
attention from the Florida Bar. However, as we avoid the Florida
Bar's attention, we fail to attract the attention of many consumers
who might benefit from our services.
In
that same article, Romer went on to say: “Lawyers and
law firms have been slow to adopt change. But the conventional wisdom
is that the practice of law will change more in the next 2 to 5 years
than it has in over 200 years. What’s going to happen in the legal
industry will be a wave of white-collar disruption.”
So let's disrupt and
disrupt some more. I write about issues affecting legal document
preparers and pro se litigants – legal access, unauthorized
practice of law, and pro se rights. Please check out some of my other
blog posts, especially “Uberish” and “We Are Disruptors”.
I welcome your questions,
comments and shares.
