I'm pretty excited about the coming week. I had planned to launch our new Virtual Law Office (VLO) this week, but it's been a lot more work than I'd expected. However, by next Wednesday, everything should be live and accessible by other people.
At this point, you might be wondering what a virtual law office is. Quite simply put, it is an online law office that can provide service to the entire state of Illinois as opposed to our current reach to the counties of Cook, DuPage, Lake, McHenry, Will, Kendall and DeKalb. Once it is live, it will be accessible via our website. We aren't the first people in the country to be doing this, but the VLO field is pretty small at this point.
More detail on what this all means after the jump.
A VLO is an Internet-based law office. It is designed to allow secure communication between the client and the attorney. Through the VLO, we can do client intake, provide legal documents, legal advice and bill for our services entirely online. Some popular industry buzzwords are "unbundled legal services" and "limited-engagement legal services." I prefer to think of it as "ala carte legal."
One of the biggest problems facing us today is that the demand for legal services is growing, but many people cannot afford to retain a traditional law firm. This is largely because a traditional law firm or even solo attorney has fixed costs that are passed along to the client in one way or another. The rent for the nice office? That comes out in the rates the attorney charges. A person to clean up and water the ficus? Same result. All of an office's overhead is ultimately passed along to the client in the form of retainers and hourly rates. Sure, you're paying for the work done and access to the attorney, but that attorney is going to set rates that will ultimately cover overhead.
In addition to overhead, you're also buying time. Going to court takes time. The attorney has to travel to the courthouse, wait for the case to be called, handle the matter at court, drive back to the office, handle billing and file-related matters at the office, work on other client matters, etc. The time spent in court is time the attorney cannot spend on other business.
A VLO works a bit differently. First and foremost, it requires some work on the part of the client. The client isn't retaining an attorney to go to court. The client is paying for legal documents prepared by an attorney and for instructions about how to use the documents. It is possible to buy documents from other sources. However, those documents are blank and not prepared by an attorney in your specific jurisdiction.
Another advantage to the VLO is the cost of services. Since you're not retaining a brick and mortar law office to appear in court, you're not paying for as much of the attorney's time, nor are you paying for the guy who waters the ficus. The advantage for the profession is enormous. A VLO allows us to provide service to those who would otherwise not be able to afford legal services. Many legal aid clinics are underfunded, understaffed, and have specific income limits for providing service. A VLO doesn't have those issues.
A final advantage to a VLO is that you don't have to commit to hiring an attorney. You can get legal services as you need them and on your own time. The VLO never closes. If you're awake at 3 AM, you can send a query to the VLO and likely hear back faster than placing a call to a traditional law office.
As we get closer to launching our VLO, I will be updating with more thoughts about the VLO and what you can expect to see.
