I suspect this story is not correct. It is just inconceivable that the Chief Justice would recommend having clients take over a lawyer's work.
That is such a mistake -- while a client should do all properly possible the lawyer has a very specific job and 'downloading' to the client is a bad bad idea.
Clients have lawyers for a reason and while legal fees need to be kept reasonable the way to do that is not to give clients legal work.
Seriously, would you trust a surgeon who thought a way to keep medical costs low was to have the surgeon do the difficult stuff and let the family stitch up the patient after?
Self represented clients can do a good job but someone half represented is likely to be in rough shape all around!
Top judge adds voice to debate over legal fees
OTTAWA -- Canada's chief justice is inviting lawyers to consider following a U.S. trend of "unbundling"legal fees, allowing their clients to pay less by doing some of the work themselves.
Beverley McLachlin raised the prospect at a time when a growing number of Canadians are representing themselves in court, adding her voice to a debate simmering in the legal community about whether lawyers should change the way they charge to avoid putting themselves out of business.
"This technique is being used in the United States to assist unrepresented litigants to get help for some aspects of their case, while they manage other aspects themselves," McLachlin said in a speech delivered recently at a Vancouver legal conference.
"It raises problems, such as the lawyer's liability for services that may be rendered without knowing all the facts. Yet, it merits consideration."
McLachlin's nudging of the legal profession was part of a speech in which she decried the lack of affordable legal help in Canada. She said that some courts report that more than 44 per cent of cases involve self-represented litigants.
James Morton
3 comments:
Do you have any statistics on average legal fees?
Not really but a normal two day trial usually runs around $30,000.00
as for this stat "some courts report that more than 44 per cent of cases involve self-represented litigants." that number sounds extremely high.
For the the $30k price tag for a 2-day trial, that probably reflects a GTA price tag. I expect the number could differ significantly, depending on the community in which the trial is held and the lawyer practices.
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