Hiring a lawyer can be expensive, and the final bill is often hard to predict. Ask a lawyer what your case will cost and you will likely hear, “It depends.” Lawyers have turned those two words into something of an art form. The answer may be fair, but it does little to help someone worried about money. Many people assume they have two choices: hire a lawyer to handle everything or do it all themselves. There is a third option. Lawyers call it unbundled legal services. It simply means hiring a lawyer to do specific parts of the work while you handle the rest.
Consider a few everyday problems. Your neighbour has sued you for making too much noise, and you need help writing a response. Your veterinarian has sent you a $4,000 bill for treatment you never approved. Your spouse wants to separate, and you need help completing the financial forms for court. Your employee has demanded six months of severance, and you want to know whether you have to pay it. Or someone owes you $8,000, has ignored your court claim, and you need help applying for a default judgment. Now consider the cost. At an example rate of $300 an hour, hiring a lawyer for 20 hours costs $6,000. Hiring the same lawyer for three hours of specific advice or document preparation costs $900. That’s a potential saving of $5,100 in this example, provided you can safely handle the remaining work yourself. The trick is knowing which three hours are worth paying for.