In the world of e-commerce, where comparable products and services are easily accessible, both can become commodities. Value creation becomes a challenge to infomediaries, who help consumers navigate the sea of information. Legacy and heritage give way to innovation and solutions. Disintermediation occurs as consumers go directly to products and services without agents and middlemen. The line between information and service is increasingly blurred.
Providers bundle their services in order to enhance value and hold customers.
The high transaction costs of litigation and cultural aversion to litigation in many societies will fuel the development of alternative models. These models will be inherently interdisciplinary, inherently non-jurisdictional, and often electronic. Lawyers need to recognize that this evolving marketplace is not some Orwellian fantasy, but an emerging reality. Clients rule, and if they are not satisfied with services they will go somewhere else or do it themselves. In Florida, seventy percent of the domestic relations cases are pro se on at least one side.