Instead of a maudlin and depressing bully pulpit sermon about why the legal profession should participate in the Access to Justice movement, I am choosing positivity.
But don’t get excited just yet. I’m still going to discuss the current state of our law profession.
Odds are if you are reading this, you are part of the solution and I am preaching to the choir.But I can’t help but take advantage of the opportunity to share my passion with my personal stump speech about solutions to unmet legal needs and underserved populations.
Here are the facts:
• Nationally, 80 percent of litigants access the court system without an attorney.
• Less than 0.5 percent of Florida licensed practicing attorneys are full-time legal aid attorneys.
• For the Bar cycle ending in June 2015, Florida attorneys reported completing 1,703,461 hours of pro bono service and donated $5,198,645 to The Florida Bar to fund free legal services for the poor.
Those statistics might sound promising, until you consider that while the time donated per attorney (16-20 hours) meets The Florida Bar’s modest 20-hour requirement, it is less than half of the 50 hours recommended by the American Bar Association.
Monetary donations paint a more bleak picture.
Total donations per attorney are approximately 15 percent of The Florida Bar’s aspirational donation of $350.
Making pro bono hours mandatory is controversial, so the expectation that our justice gap will be solved through private Bar donations of time and money is elusive, if not futile.
The ABA, Florida Supreme Court and Florida Bar are open to solutions.
While Washington State pioneered the first Access to Justice Commission in 1994, the ABA substantially grew the Access to Justice movement with the assistance of the National Center for State Courts over five years ago when it funded innovation grants and set the framework for expansion of state-sponsored Access to Justice Commissions.
Florida followed suit in November 2014 when Chief Justice Jorge Labarga established the Commission on Access to Civil Justice. The June 2016 final report recommended the commission become permanent.
Justice Labarga not only founded the commission, but has gained national recognition for the vigor with which the group investigated, identified and framed possible solutions to Florida’s justice gap.
The commission does not act within a vacuum.
Collaboration with Florida Bar leadership, its members and the state Supreme Court proved essential to implementation of new ideas.
The commission engaged in the study of justice gaps and 2015-16 Florida Bar President Ramon Abadin pushed his platform of innovation, technology and progress for the profession.
Surveys on gender inequality and wage disparity prompted reinvigoration of the Standing Committee on Diversity and Inclusion as well as current Florida Bar President William Schifino’s creation of the Committee on Gender Bias’ charge to examine gender and diversity within the Bar.
The significance of addressing these issues as a profession is related to Access to Justice as highlighted in the ABA’s Report on the Future of the Legal Profession’s August 2016 findings that “public trust and confidence in obtaining justice and in accessing legal services is compromised by bias, discrimination, complexity and lack of resources … the legal profession does not yet reflect the diversity of the public, especially in positions of leadership and power.”
The ABA calls on all mandatory and voluntary Bar associations to contribute to diversification among our ranks to improve the public’s perception and reality in accessing the justice system.
The Joint Board Committee on Professional Ethics and Technology and the Commission on Access to Civil Justice proposed rule changes to The Florida Bar Board of Governors that passed overwhelmingly in July.
Major changes include eliminating the term “lawyer referral service” and replacing it with “qualifying providers” and removing the necessity for malpractice insurance while participating in a qualifying provider network.
The rules address only for-profit lawyer referral services, the new online companies offering legal help, legal directories and similar operations, but do not affect not-for-profit referral services operated by The Florida Bar or voluntary Bar associations such as The Jacksonville Bar Association.
Other changes to rules include permission for qualifying providers to charge a technology or advertising fee, but maintaining the fee-splitting prohibition between the service and the attorney.
Qualifying providers remain prohibited to direct or influence the case or the lawyer’s judgment.
The policy supporting these changes includes maintaining the integrity of the legal profession while acknowledging the growth of global online matching services, providing access to justice for underserved populations and providing employment opportunities and/or connecting prospective clients with young lawyers.
There is an unlimited market out there for low-cost legal services, but the resistance to building low-cost legal services into a sustainable business plan poses one of the largest barriers to private attorneys embracing this opportunity.
The Florida Bar’s Practice Resource Institute gives the young entrepreneurial law graduate a map in its February article, “New Attorney/New Firm,” on how to successfully access lower- and middle-income clients.
The article said “innovation must come from the ingenuity of the young attorney who is driven to succeed.”
The Florida Bar Young Lawyers Division recognizes the major shift in the legal market and has addressed it by educating our Bar in how to cater to emerging client needs with the website:
startmyfloridalawfirm.com.
Innovations abound in our own backyard.
The Commission on Access to Civil Justice Subcommittee on Access to and Delivery of Legal Services, in its final report dated May, proposed the development of a statewide online triage system pilot project.
The pilot, to be launched soon, involves Jacksonville Area Legal Aid partnered with the Clay County Clerk’s office as a clearinghouse to connect with other legal entities, including lawyer referral services.
This program will incentivize lawyers to participate by potentially providing opportunity for low-fee unbundled legal issues while matching unrepresented litigants with affordable legal services.
The future is indeed bright, even if uncertain.
Necessity, need and sustainability catapult our traditionally precedential profession into the future. Where and how we innovate shall be defined by our creativity and our commitment to filling our justice gap.
Will you join me?