Eighty percent of low-income individuals in the US cannot afford needed legal assistance. Middle-income Americans fare little better with forty to sixty percent of their legal needs going unmet. Many of these individuals are forced to represent themselves in foreclosures, family disputes, and landlord-tenant disputes. Most are unprepared to navigate the complexities of the legal system. A possible solution to this problem is a legal model more reflective of the current medical hierarchy. Nurses, technicians, and pharmacists help provide aid to underserved communities and can reach populations that are inaccessible to most physicians. Allowing paralegals and others close to the legal system to take on more responsibility with minimal additional legal education could provide legal assistance to these underserved populations. Many legal tasks do not need to be performed by a licensed lawyer; adoption of a tiered system of legal-services lowers barriers to entry and may increase access to legal services.
See Jennifer S. Bard & Larry Cunningham, The Legal Profession Is Failing Low-Income and Middle-Class People. Let’s Fix That., The Washington Post, June 5, 2017.
Special thanks to Lewis Saret (Attorney, Washington, D.C.) for bringing this article to my attention.
