Guest blog by Yu-Chun Pan
Do you love DIY? Many people love partaking in a bit of DIY at the weekends either for the sense of achievement and enjoyment or for cost saving purposes. When you’ve completed one job well, you realise how good you can be and decide to take on a bigger challenge. You were painting your spare bedroom last month, and you find yourself fitting a new window this month; it is amazing how much we can do ourselves. There are lots of things that we can do ourselves, from assembling a flat pack bookcase to completing your own tax returns. But is there a limit on what we can do? Can you be your own lawyer?
Unbundled legal services allow people to deal with their legal issues and only use lawyers for some parts of the issue. You take on some of the work that lawyers normally do, and use a lawyer for things that you cannot do yourself. This limits the scope of the lawyer’s involvement and therefore shrink the legal bills. You don’t need to be a solicitor to deal with some legal issues (as long as they are not reserved legal activities). That’s why there are lots of ‘a la carte’ or ‘pay as you go’ legal services available nowadays, ranging from divorce to commercial contracts. You can even do your own conveyancing if you are very keen!
Before starting any DIY home improvement project, most people would think about whether they have the right tools and experience. The majority of people wouldn’t try to build a garage if they haven’t used a drill before. Often, you hire a general builder who will coordinate all the various parts of the building project from beginning to the end. You pay for their experience and knowledge. More precisely, you pay for their ability to take all the variables and risks into consideration and plan the whole thing out for you. You tell them what you wish to have, and they plan it out and advise you on the potential solutions to the technical issues of your dream. You decide what solutions to take and when the project completes you no longer need to worry about your new car being scratched at night. Essentially, your builder and you create value together.
Value co-creation is one of the key principles of knowledge intensive business services (KIBS). I explained why communication and interaction are crucial while using KIBS here. Instead of value embedded in goods, KIBS focuses on the co-creation of value and relationship. People are not just buying services anymore, they are buying products that deliver value through services based on customer needs and experiences. Customers are no longer passive buyers; they are active agents with resource and customer knowledge in the value co-creation process.
In the legal industry, we have seen the move from one-way suppliers delivering value to customers, to suppliers and customers creating value together. By adopting the DIY route, you essentially take this move further and take more responsibility of value creation yourself. Reducing the level of lawyers’ involvement, the immediate gain is the cost saving. You have all the customer experience and knowledge. However, you need to ensure you are fully aware of the work you need to do and the knowledge required to do the work. You need to be able to identify all the variables and risks in your case and take actions on them (either by yourself or delegate to your lawyer). Once you assess your situation, you can then decide where and how much of the lawyer’s involvement you want.
DIY legal kit is certainly a cheaper way of dealing with your legal issues. But it might not be right for everyone. Without the required knowledge, DIY legal kits can be a false economy. Make sure you know what you are doing before you do it.