It might help to start out by imagining a broad spectrum of situations in which legal assistance might or might not be necessary. At one end of that spectrum, there are going to be situations that are basically routine and involve what are essentially simple legal transactions. These can often be accomplished by the use of a standardized legal form, such as a lease or a loan agreement, and are very often so simple that they normally require little or no legal help at all. In fact, most people might feel somewhat foolish even asking a lawyer to handle such a matter.

At the other end of that spectrum, are those situations, which are so complex that they should never be approached without the assistance of experienced legal counsel. In fact, with some situations, attempting to proceed without retaining legal counsel would probably risk seriously exacerbating the existing problem. Obviously, once that occurs, it generally becomes necessary to then retain an attorney to extricate the situation from the larger and more complex problem that has now developed. One could then expect the legal expenses at that point to be far higher than if an attorney had been handling the matter from the beginning.