Do It Yourself?

On one of the listservs where I hang out, there has been an interesting discussion about the increasing commoditization of legal services, with more and more people opting to "do it yourself" with the help of document websites like legalzoom.com. 

Coincidentally, yesterday I had to visit my mechanic because the air conditioning in my car wasn't really cooling, and I needed an extra shot of freon.

Wait, there is a connection between these two paragraphs, I swear!

In chatting with my mechanic, I asked him if the recession had helped or hurt his business. My thought was that with fewer people buying new cars, that would mean more repair and maintenance on older cars and thus more work for him. He said, yes it had, kinda....but....

"Lots of people don't even want to pay the repair shop. They want to try to fix their cars themselves," he said. "And then it's a real mess."

How do you handle that, I inquired. He pointed at the sign in his repair bay:

Labor: $95 per hour
If you watch: $125

If you offer advice: $150

If you already worked on it: $175

Maybe attorneys could learn something from him. 

Comments

[Gerry Oginski]

Mark this is priceless!