Do-It-Yourself Lawyers

Expensive legal fees cause self-representation renaissance

©1998 by Nick DiSpoldo, Free Press contributor

oday, attorneys have just about priced themselves out of the market as far as the average working American is concerned. A clear majority of Americans cannot afford the fees of lawyers unless they retain attorneys on a contingent fee basis. As President Jimmy Carter so blithely put it, "Ninety percent of our lawyers serve ten percent of our people. We are over-lawyered and under-represented." As a result, more and more people are being encouraged to take control of their own relatively simple legal affairs.

In 1971, two young and idealistic attorneys, disenchanted with the legal profession and its lack of ethics, established Nolo Press in Berkeley, California. One of these attorneys, Ralph Warner, dedicated himself to publishing legal self-help books which can be understood and used by even high school students. Warner has since published more than one hundred titles. Some of these include Everybody's Guide to Small Claims Court, Fight your Traffic Ticket... and Win, How to Get a Green Card, and A Legal Guide for Lesbian and Gay Couples.

Warner believes that the legal profession has successfully sold Americans on its favorite public relations slogan-- "A man who represents himself has a fool for a client." Without great opposition, the American Bar Association convinced most states to pass "unauthorized practice of law" statutes in the 1920s and 30s. This, of course, gave lawyers a monopoly over the sale of legal information. But Warner contends that there is currently a "powerful democratic trend" among people to participate in the legal affairs that seriously affect their own lives.

In California, many "divorce centers" have been formed by non-attorneys. Divorce Centers of California, a prominent typing service in San Francisco, summarizes its service on one of its posters: "We are not attorneys....Attorneys represent people. We assist people to represent themselves."

There is a difference between giving legal advice and selling legal information--which is precisely what paralegals do. They provide the necessary information, forms, and typing, in order to equip persons to self-litigate cases.

The mere mention of paralegals and legal typing services makes some attorneys berserk. The real battle between attorneys and non-attorneys regarding the practice of law began in 1966 when Congress passed the Administrative Procedure Act (defined in US Code Annotated, Title 5, paragraph 555).

This law allows non-attorney representation at federal agency hearings. Congress left it to the agencies to decide whether each will allow non-attorney representation. Among them are: the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Civil Aeronautics Board, the Consumer Products Safety Commission, the IRS, and many more. An attorney will charge a hefty fee for such representation, when instead any person can represent him/herself, or find a friend who will.

The organized bars were, of course, outraged by passage of this act, and challenged its constitutionality in federal court, citing that all states (except Arizona) had statutes making the practice of law by unlicensed persons a crime. The court disallowed the suit.

In 1996, The California State Bar, alarmed by the proliferation of paralegals, proposed legislation making it a felony to practice law without a license.

However, according to author Steve Elias, the California Association of Independent Paralegals "mobilized 250 members to protest the proposal at a September State Bar meeting....for the first time in memory the State Bar listened to public concern; it abandoned its felony proposal. In its place it adopted a ten-point plan calling for stepped-up enforcement of unauthorized practice of law..."

An honest citizen with a legitimate grievance can use the self-help books and utilize the courts without paying little more than a modest filing fee. An expensive attorney is not necessary for most civil actions.

If you're interested in self-help law books from Nolo Press, write Nolo Press, 950 Parker St, Berkeley CA, 94710. Nolo Books are also available at Elliott Bay Books in Seattle and other booksellers.