What Happens When Limited Scope Representation Ends?

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Steve Altishin 0:32
I'm Steve Altishin, Director of Client Partnerships at Pacific Cascade Legal. I'm here with our Founding Attorney, Lewis Landerholm, to talk about when limited scope representation ends, and what to do if you need further legal help. So Lewis, how're you doing today?

Lewis Landerholm 0:49
I'm doing great. How are you, Steve?

Steve Altishin 0:51
I'm doing well. So let's start with the first part of this question. When does limited scope representation terminate?

Lewis Landerholm 1:00
That answer is always all of our clients and potential clients favorite answer: it depends. It depends on a couple of things. One it can be, it can be based on agreement, like we have been hired for a limited scope of a project, or a limited scope of like a restraining order hearing, when we're just going to discrete hearing, then our representation will end based on agreement. Sometimes it's just that it ends based off of the client no longer needs advice. So in other instances, we will be advising throughout an entire case. And whether we are then drafting the documents or reviewing the documents at the end, to then finalize everything, it can end, you know when the case is over. So there's a there's a lot of with limited scope, there's a lot of control with the client, as there's a lot of control that we have, in order to determine how much we're going to do. And when. And then client can determine when they no longer need the advice or services. So it kind of just depends on on the client's needs.

Steve Altishin 2:15
So it comes to an end one way or the other, your services stop. What happens after that? Is there some sort of notice that goes to anybody? What happens after the end of it?

Lewis Landerholm 2:29
Again, it depends. If we're handling a hearing on a limited scope, then we will withdraw from the case, most of the time, we aren't necessarily attorneys of record. So notices don't have to go anywhere, essentially, you know, clients and attorneys have the conversation and they just say, you know, they just say, Okay, I no longer need help at this time. If that changes, then we can just kind of pick back up where we left off or help with another piece of the case. But it really just depends on what the client's needs really are.

Steve Altishin 3:03
And that kind of leads into the last question, the second part of it, which is, let's say I need further assistance, either we're in the middle of the case, and you've done all this stuff. And I'm thinking, hey, you know, I want you to do some more, you're doing a good job. Or, you know, a year later, what would I do as the client to get that extra assistance?

Lewis Landerholm 3:29
Yeah, I mean, the the easiest, obviously, is anybody can call our office and can always talk to our, you know, our team, they know what's going on in all of our cases from a case management software that we have. So, you know, they can look up who our client is, what type of agreement who the attorney was, who the paralegal is, and then we can get if it's been a good amount of time, then, you know, get back in touch with them and have a conversation about what's required next, most of the time, it's kind of an ongoing relationship, where then, you know, our clients will just email their attorney and say, Hey, I need to schedule a meeting, or I need to schedule a phone call to go over the next phase of our negotiations. And then we'll jump on a call and go over that. So it's dependent on whatever the kind of stage of the case it is, and how long it's been. But we can I mean, we're flexible, we can do it anyway, essentially.

Steve Altishin 4:27
Sounds good. It sounds like, you know, the client isn't, at the very beginning, forced to make a decision. I want just this and then be stuck without that; there are a lot of ways that that can be adjusted to whatever they need.

Lewis Landerholm 4:44
Yeah, and then, you know, a lot of times as well, we'll have somebody start where they feel like okay, yeah, we're just gonna negotiate. It'll be pretty straightforward and easy, but then things break down or things get complicated, and then court happens. Well, then we can be hired then to jump in and to handle the case on a full representation basis at that point to then take over the case and see it through to the end. So there are the I mean, that there's a lot of different options. We already know the case, because we're working in the background, or we're working to advise anyway. So then we're just, you know, as long as we have enough time, and we have that conversation about when the hearing is when trial is, what are the issues, what's the evidence, discovery, all of these things, then we generally have the opportunity to then take over the case, to be able to represent client in court to see it through to the end.

Steve Altishin 5:38
One last question, if someone else, they had been working with another attorney or by themselves, and they're halfway through the case, the case is over, and they've got to now figure out what to do, something happened after the judgment. Can they still come to us for a limited scope representation?

Lewis Landerholm 6:01
Yeah, I mean, yes. You know, our consultation when having a conversation with myself or one of our other attorneys will help our potential clients understand if, if it's something that we can help with, can we jump into a case at that point? Are we up again, too close to trial, where, you know, we generally if we don't have about 45 days, like, we can't jump into a trial, because we need to be able to get the case worked up properly, you know, for the court and to make sure that we've got all the evidence and understand the case, there are constraints on those type of things after a case has done something like in Oregon, we can't modify property division. So if somebody comes to us after the fact that the judge has ruled on property division, we can't go and modify that there may be appellate and you know, things that somebody can do, but that's, that would be a different attorney that would handle that. So really, just all I would say, always call us ask the question, we'll be able to answer if it's something that we can actually help with or not, or if we can't refer to an appellate attorney, or, you know, just understand that we need to modify later. And this is what modification looks like down the road and have that conversation like that.

Steve Altishin 7:16
Well, thank you, Lewis, for sitting down and joining us to talk about when limited scope representation ends and what to do if you need further legal assistance. So thanks for today.

Lewis Landerholm 7:29
You're welcome, Steve.

Steve Altishin 7:30
And thank you everyone for joining us. If anyone has further questions, as always, feel free to contact our firm and we can get you connected with an attorney who can help you. And until next time, stay safe, stay happy, and be well.

Outro:
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