(via Seattle Times)

Professor Deborah Rhode weighs in on the need for neighborhood law clinics in light of the high prices of legal expertise for The Seattle Times.

Marcia Jackson sat at a wooden table between long shelves of books at the King County Law Library. The 64-year-old cook needed help dealing with what she described as a complex family-trust issue.

She had come to one of the few places where she could get it: a neighborhood law clinic, where volunteer lawyers dish out advice on a wide range of legal topics, for free.

…

“There’s a crucial need,” said professor Deborah Rhode, director of Stanford Law School’s Center on the Legal Profession, noting that surveys have shown “over four-fifths of the legal needs of poor people and close to one-half of the needs of moderate income people are not being met.”

“Lawyers have priced themselves out of the market for people of limited means,” she said.

…

Nevertheless, Rhode questioned whether Washington’s requirements are so burdensome that they’ll keep the program from helping as many people as it could.
“You see a relatively small number of individuals ready to jump through the hoops,” she said. “Many countries have nonlawyers handling these matters without adverse effects.”

…

“They know just as much if not more than all your judges and lawyers,” she said. “They’re the ones who do all the work.”