A notable exception is the Orange County Bar Association in Orlando, Florida, which requires all member lawyers to participate in its legal aid society by serving free of charge or by donating fees in lieu of service. However, even where there is a pro bono obligation, legal aid resources are still very sufficient to provide assistance to the majority of those in need. In addition to funding challenges, the lawyers argue that the current pro bono system “does not create an incentive for high-quality legal advice.” [because it] cannot replace the expertise and experience of experienced lawyers. [29] Of concern is that, since pro bono services are often seen as a professional development opportunity for less experienced lawyers, the focus shifts from the quality of services provided to a client to the growth of the lawyer. In addition, access to pro bono services is often hampered by geographical access, especially in rural areas where the population is widely dispersed. [28] Therefore, even with an increase in pro bono services, the provision of these services remains a challenge that prevents the overall equity gap from being closed. In 2003, a study was published linking civil legal aid to a significant decrease in rates of partner violence (RPN). [36] LSC-funded programs closed 120,944 cases of domestic violence in 2017 alone. [17] In the ten years since this study, a significant amount of research has begun to examine the positive effects of legal aid in civil matters.
Studies have shown that legal aid offers benefits such as reducing homelessness as well as the need for emergency shelter by reducing evictions. Over the past two decades, civil legal aid services have been shown to have saved the homes of more than 6,000 tenants in New York City, according to the 1996 study by the New York City Bar Association. [37] Due to the fragmented nature of legal aid in the United States, cost-benefit analyses are often country-specific. A 2010 article that brought together several other studies found that the benefits go beyond reducing the rate of domestic violence, noting that access to help also bring more funds to a state by helping individuals receive federal benefits, protect children, and help certain groups such as the elderly and veterans. which are often exploited. [37] An ABA Day report in Washington lists a state-to-state cost-benefit analysis that showed a return on investment of up to 9:1 in Alabama in 2015. [38] The problem with the chronic underfunding of legal aid is that it imprisons the lower middle class in a no man`s land: too rich to qualify for legal aid, too poor to pay for a lawyer in private practice. To address the persistent shortage of legal aid services, some commentators have suggested that mandatory pro bono obligations should be required of all lawyers, just as doctors working in emergency rooms are required to treat all patients, regardless of their creditworthiness.
Bar associations have generally successfully opposed such proposals. In its 1993 Model Rule 6.1, the American Bar Association emphasized the importance for lawyers to provide at least fifty hours of free legal assistance each year to low-income litigants. [28] To justify this request, the American Bar Association has highlighted the broader movement to exploitably integrate broader ideals that are at the heart of advocacy, such as public service and the promotion of the public good. [28] Since then, pro bono legal work in large law firms has become institutionalized. Before the 1990s, pro bono legal work was mainly done by small businesses; However, in the late 1990s, pro bono was distributed “through a network of structures designed to facilitate the massive provision of free services by volunteers acting for professional reasons.” [28] 1/3 of Latino lawyers do pro bono work and 49% of Latino lawyers say they meet this 50-hour annual quota, with 8.3% saying they provide 200 hours or more. Pro bono services are sometimes provided by the courts in cases related to employment, gender discrimination, consumer credit and fraud, among others. The Fair Debt Purchase Practices Act[39] was born out of cooperative work within the community and draws on the original perspective of legal aid; Achieve justice and fundamentally transform into a bottom-up system that creates a meaningful societal transformation of Out from Under Poverty and changes the culture under which American social spaces operate. This was achieved through an effort to serve the community, through an open-door general clinic event that made EBCLC aware of a disproportionate number of clients, all of whom were sued for credit card debt. [40] Since the General Clinic allowed all clients who experienced various forms of legal issues to apply for legal aid, it was able to collect clients as well as evidence and data that supported the position that this particular event was a targeted business strategy that exploited legally ignorant citizens, marginalized and the poorest.
The ability to provide recourse to customers was only part of the solution used by EBCLC. The other half participated in the joint efforts of community members, academic and educational staff (i.e., the law students who serve the clinic), as well as legislative proposals to amend the laws that made this legal poverty trap possible. [40] Civil legal aid is the support of legal aid and assistance to people living in or near poverty in legal matters outside the criminal justice system. For people facing civil law challenges such as unlawful evictions, seizures, domestic violence or unlawful denial of state assistance, it may be impossible to navigate the justice system without a lawyer. However, unlike the Sixth Amendment right to a lawyer in criminal proceedings, in the vast majority of civil cases, the courts have not recognized the right to a lawyer. This makes justice inaccessible to low-income people and undermines a fundamental principle of our nation that: the amount of money a person has should not determine the quality of justice they receive.