Mosten's Model for Unbundling

Los Angeles family law attorney Forrest Mosten offers his clients 17 categories of service to choose from in an unbundled arrangement. The client maintains responsibility for those tasks not designated to the attorney.

Note: Although Mosten and other key advocates of unbundling are family lawyers, they believe unbundling holds possibilities in other areas of law practice as well.

1) Legal advice: office visits, telephone calls, fax, mail, email;

2) Advice about availability of alternative means to resolve the dispute, including mediation and arbitration;

3) Evaluation of the client's self-diagnosis of the case and advising the client about legal rights;

4) Guidance and procedural information for filing or serving documents;

5) Reviews of correspondence and court documents;

6) Preparation and/or suggestion of documents to be prepared;

7) Factual investigation: contacting witnesses, public record searches, in-depth interview of client;

8) Legal research and analysis;

9) Discovery: interrogatories, depositions, requests for document production;

10) Planning for negotiations, including simulated role playing with the client;

11) Planning for court appearances made by the client, including simulated role playing with the client;

12) Backup and troubleshooting during the trial;

13) Referring the client to other counsel, expert or professional;

14) Counseling the client about an appeal;

15) Procedural assistance with an appeal and assisting with substantive legal argumentation in an appeal;

16) Providing preventive planning and/or scheduling legal checkups;

17) Other.