Changes Coming For Access to Justice?
I listened to an interesting podcast on Slate’s “Amicus” site the other day. The title was “Lawyers, Who Needs Them?” Dahlia Lithwick was…
August 21, 2019 at 12:16 AM
5 minute read
I listened to an interesting podcast on Slate’s “Amicus” site the other day. The title was “Lawyers, Who Needs Them?” Dahlia Lithwick was interviewing Rebecca Sandefur, whose Wiki bio describes her as “an American sociologist who won a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship in 2018 for ‘promoting a new, evidence-based approach to increasing access to civil justice for low-income communities.’
If the last sentence doesn’t cause you to pause or mutter “WTF?,” read it again. Yes, this professor got money to study whether the world might be better off if there were places other than law offices where folks could get quick and easy access to legal information. I have to admit she might have a point though.
As we all know, much of what we do every day is explain the law to folks lost in the legal or regulatory forest. Smart folks call it knowledge asymmetry. Studies, including one by the American Bar Foundation which I wrote about some time ago, tell us that many people don’t perceive legal problems or issues the way we do. (I’m talking about non-criminal stuff here. Anyone who has been arrested understands they have a legal problem. If they don’t, their free lawyer will explain it.)
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
Trending Stories
- 1The Law Firm Disrupted: For Big Law Names, Shorter is Sweeter
- 2Wine, Dine and Grind (Through the Weekend): Summer Associates Thirst For Experience in 'Real Matters'
- 3'That's Disappointing': Only 11% of MDL Appointments Went to Attorneys of Color in 2023
- 4What We Know About the Kentucky Judge Killed in His Chambers
- 5'I'm Staying Everything': Texas Bankruptcy Judge Halts Talc Trials Against J&J
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250