By Cynthia Price
Legal News
Although Limited Scope Representation (LSR) is unlikely to replace traditional full-scope practice in the near future, it is increasingly an option that is appealing to attorneys and clients.
“Limited scope representation allows lawyers to take on parts of a case or help with a case without taking on full representation,” explains Executive Director Deborah Hughes of the Kent County Legal Assistance Center.
“Full representation is challenging for many [clients] both because it is expensive based on hourly rates and retainers, but also because the total cost is unknowable. It can depend on what is in dispute, who represents the other side, the possibility of settlement and the risk of trial. With limited scope, a lawyer and client can work out what each of them will do and what the costs will be. Everything is on the table so the prospective client can make an informed choice about what legal services they need and can afford.”
The lack of attorneys aware of and willing to practice LSR is a problem throughout the state. That is why Michigan Legal Help (MLH), the agency that manages the state legal self-help program operating through www.michiganlegalhelp.org, is encouraging attorneys to consider adding LSR to their toolkit.
Court Rules for LSR became effective Jan. 1, 2018, but lawyers have so far not responded in large numbers. In the meantime, even after limited campaigns to raise awareness, the public is expressing a lot of interest in LSR.
The SBM Lawyer Referral Service reports 25-30 callers per week seeking a limited scope attorney, and about 200 visitors a week read the MLH website’s LSR educational materials. MLH and the SBM are reaching out to lawyers with the idea that LSR represents a win-win for both sides of the attorney-client relationship.
MLH staff is embedding references to LSR throughout their online materials – for example, when visitors to michiganlegalhelp.com want to represent themselves in a divorce but may come upon a single issue requiring a lawyer’s assistance, the site will make clear Michigan law allows them to use attorney services for that issue.
“Limited scope is something we’ve been talking about for years on the State Bar’s Affordable Legal Services Committee and elsewhere,” says MLH Director Angela Tripp. “It’s great for people who can’t afford full service representation but it’s also great for attorneys. The market is there; the clients are there looking for it. It is a change, but it could be a really fruitful change.”
LSR has been under discussion in the Michigan legal community at least since the State Bar convened a Solutions to Self Help Task Force in 2010. Later, the comprehensive 21st Century Practice Task Force, co-chaired by Bruce Courtade of Rhoades-McKee and Julie Fershtman of Foster Swift, recommended “implementing a high-quality, comprehensive, limited scope representation system, including guidelines, attorney and client education, rules and commentary, and court forms focusing on civil cases.”
SBM also hosted a committee that advised on the court rules, which the Michigan Supreme Court adopted in Sept. 2017.
Though LSR, sometimes called “unbundling,” can include advice, coaching, developing an overall legal strategy, or performing one or more boundaried tasks, the rules primarily focus on two aspects: ghostwriting and making a limited appearance.
The SBM work group developing the rules asked for a written ethics opinion. It states that an attorney providing a “properly informed” client with limited scope services “...retains all of the professional responsibility that would exist in the case of ordinary services.” Guided by American Bar Association ethics, the work group also made sure to involve ethicists directly in the rule development.
Attorney Rebecca Tooman, from Innovative Law Services in Novi, notes LSR coordinates well with the types of practice she was already doing.
Tooman says, “There was a time not that long ago when we as lawyers would have been general practitioners and have to do everything in different areas of the law, and I relate it to that, to figuring out what you can do to help the clients best with what they can afford.”
Those who want to get started on LSR will find a toolkit at https://www.michbar.org/pmrc/limited-scope.
MLH and SBM brochures tell potential LSR clients to search the SBM Member Directory; adding a bio to that listing that includes the term “limited scope” will help clients search.
It is also possible to sign up as a limited scope attorney on the Lawyer Referral Service portal.
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