THIS LAW DAY, we explore how to make the legal system more accessible. The question is germane to civil legal matters because people can choose to voluntarily access, or ignore, the legal system (unlike criminal matters which arguably do not involve issues of voluntary participation). The question is, why do some people fail to access the legal system?
If cost were the only barrier to accessibility, then in order to increase access it would only be necessary to offer more free or low-cost legal services. Additional service hours could be “encouraged” by: raising 18-B fees; requiring every attorney to do some number of hours of pro bono work (either independently or through any of the dozens of bar associations, religious or charitable institutions, or public or private social services agencies, but, hopefully, only in the fields in which the attorney has sufficient competence); offering scholarships or low-rate loans to law students with the requirement that the students work in the public sector for a period of years; or requiring that each law student’s education consist of a clinical program or public service externship that services an otherwise under-served geographical location or under-served population.
