The American Bar Association’s Equal Justice Conference (EJC) 2014 will be held in Portland, Oregon.
You may register for a pre-conference session for $75, without having to register for the entire EJC conference!
Among other EJC and pre-conference programs, there is one for Access to Justice (A2J) professionals, public law librarians, and those who are interested public law library or public library legal reference services and A2J (access to justice) issues:
Lots of interesting posts on Richard Zorza’s Access to Justice Blog:
1) Guest Post from World Bank’s Paul Prettitore on Legal Aid in Jordan (10/10/13)
2) NYT Piece on Doctor “Mindfulness” has Major Implications for Lawyers and Judges (9/26/13)
If Access to Justice (A2J) is to be something other than a catch-phrase or a pipe dream, lawyers, judges, court administrators, and law librarians need to think, plan, and act creatively on micro and macro initiatives.
Many ideas are already on drawing boards, in app programmer hands, and in pilot project status. Court Simplification is another A2J Big Idea and here are some places to read about it:
1) You can Google the phrase “court simplification” for information.
Thinking about legal self help, access to justice, unbundled legal services?
Richard Zorza’s Access to Justice Blog has all kinds of intriguing posts and links, e.g.
1) “Lawyer Referral Services Are the Key Gateway to Unbundled Services and California Leads the Way,” 10/16/12.
Event: Access to Justice and Bar Leaders Conference, June 8–10, 2012 in Yakima, Washington:
Topic: “Our New Economic Reality: The Legal Profession’s Role in partnership with the Washington State Bar Association and the Washington State Access to Justice Board“
“Report on Evolving Role of Law Libraries in the 21st Century,” by Richard Zorza
“Law libraries can continue to play an integral role in the courts and justice system in the 21st Century, but only if they change their orientation towards helping the public access the legal system. A new report released by Zorza & Associates today, titled “The Sustainable 21st Century Law Library: Vision, Deployment and Assessment for Access to Justice,” notes the vast changes to the law library landscape over the past twenty years and the potentially critical new role they can play as an access to justice resource for people without lawyers….” [Link to blog post and full text of report.]
“If you want to keep law resources, contact your legislator,” Feb 8, 2012, letter by a Columbia County attorney, published in the South County Spotlight.
This is an important reminder that, no, not all legal research resources are online, and even if they were, people still need to learn how to research the law, how to compile legislative histories, and where to find legal assistance services in their communities.
The process of creating and implementing new business models, for businesses, for nonprofits, for libraries, and for the legal profession, begins with discussing and examining new ideas.
The new biz model might be a Virtual Law Office or it might be a new idea, or germ of an idea, on providing legal services to people who can’t afford to hire lawyers:
Here’s a suggestion about the latter, and to paraphrase John Gear, if you don’t think that there is great demand for people who need but can’t afford lawyers, hang around a legal aid office (or ask a public law librarian):
A former Umatilla County Law Librarian said during a discussion about the importance of public law libraries:
“The folks who cannot pay for a private attorney and cannot get a legal aid attorney are already disadvantaged in being forced to be self represented. With the law library, they have a slim chance at self representation, but it is at least a chance. Without a public law library, they have no hope of achieving any sort of justice at all…. What is the point of operating court facilities if the system doesn’t work for everyone? ”
From a report on access to justice in Oregon:
“There is significant unmet need for outreach, community education and access to easily used, high quality self-help materials…. Lower income people obtain legal assistance for their problems less than 20% of the time.” (From, The State of Access to Justice in Oregon, by D. Michael Dale, published in 2000, sponsored by the Oregon State Bar, the Oregon Judicial Department, and former Governor John Kitzhaber.)
Lewis & Clark Law School Library’s “Law in the News” roundup, brings us this story:
“Law Libraries Struggle with More Patrons, Less Funding,” by Jose Pagliery, Daily Business Review, December 15, 2010
‘… Pro se litigants, who often can’t afford attorneys and instead choose to represent themselves, are quickly becoming the largest share of users of public law libraries, according to a statewide law library nonprofit. As lawyers more frequently choose to study case law from their desktop computers, common folk are shuffling into brick-and-mortar institutions.
Oregon Legal Research Blog