New Hampshire, California Chief Justices Call For "Limited-Scope Representation" In Effort To Assist Pro Se Litigants Navigate Through Court System

John T. Broderick Jr. and Ronald M. George, the chief justices of the New Hampshire and California Supreme Courts, respectively, wrote in The New York Times recently, calling for promoting efforts to close the “justice gap” for litigants in civil cases who cannot afford a lawyer, and either do not qualify for legal aid or are unable to have a lawyer assigned to them because of dwindling budgets.

• One such effort involves the “unbundling” of legal services. Forty-one states, including California and New Hampshire, have adopted a model rule drafted by the American Bar Association, or similar provisions, which allow lawyers to unbundle their services and take only part of a case, a cost-saving practice known as “limited-scope representation” that, with proper ethical safeguards, is responsive to new realities.

• Traditionally, lawyers have been required to stay with a case from beginning to end, unless a court has excused them from this obligation. Now, in those states that explicitly or implicitly allow unbundling, people or businesses can hire a lawyer on a limited basis to help them fill out forms, to prepare documents, to coach them on how to present in court or to appear in court for one or two hearings.

For more, see A Nation of Do-It-Yourself Lawyers.

See also, The Business Insider: Judges Argue For Assistance For The Do-It-Yourself Lawyer.