A.Rising legal costs.

1.Serve to deny some people quality access to legal services.

2.Some legal problems are so insignificant that no lawyer will ever bother with them, leaving real problems unresolved because they are unprofitable.

B.One possible solution could be managed legal care.

1.It has served to control explosive legal costs in medicine.

2.Medical model can be examined and applied to law.

C.LMOs have not been widely discussed in legal literature. Scholars seem to assume that they will become dominant in the future, but none has examined this idea in detail.

A.Gatekeeper function-prevents waste through the denial of frivolous claims.

B.Oversight function-HMO must approve certain procedures in advance to avoid waste.

C.Delegation function-HMO has the procedures done by nurses or member doctors whenever possible, to avoid higher costs and promote efficiency.

D.In-House preference-HMOs hesitant to pay for outside specialists because they want to control costs through having the work done by doctors under contract.

E.Wellness function-regular checkups prevent later expensive procedures.

A.Denial of legitimate claims/procedures

B.Limitation on seeing your own doctor.

A.Gatekeeper function.

1.Website could help advise individuals whether they need to consult an attorney.

2.Attorneys advising clients over the telephone whether they need to further consult an attorney.

3.Must be careful NOT to weed out cases by judging potential profitibility.

B.Oversight function.

1.Could remove frivolous counter-claims or suits.

2.The clients could pursue denied claims pro se or through another attorney.

3.Most other decisions along these lines (claims, arguments, ect) are already clearly within attorney discretion.

4.Obvious incentive to resolve issues quickly…better than current incentive to drag out cases (and collect billable hours).

C.Delegation function.

1.Can either refer these cases to attorneys or paralegals, depending on the needs of the client.

D.Wellness function.

1.Attorneys always wish their clients had come to them before involving themselves in legal problems. Now they will. The clients can visit an attorney before the legal problem develops into costly protracted litigation or criminal prosecution.

A.Firm.

1.Monthly payments can help fund office.

2.Settlements and verdicts can be kept for LMO administration or distributed through profit sharing.

3.Not really designed for business service…better suited for individuals and families.

B.Attorney.

1.Steady monthly salary.

2.Possibility of contingency fee profit sharing without as much contingency fee risk (which is spread throughout the LMO).

3.Less demand for billable hours, so a more humane working environment.

A.Pre-paid legal plans.

1.There, extra or protracted actions often cost more. Here, all should be included in one monthly fee. Need to do more research about how this can reasonably be done.

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