Written by Morgan Newell
Delaware Governor Jack Markell recently wrote an opinion article urging states to remove many of their professional licensing requirements. License requirements often do more to protect existing service providers than they do to protect consumers. These requirements also leave consumers with fewer options and, therefore, higher prices when seeking services. Gov. Markell specifically discusses how requiring someone assisting an evictee in landlord-tenant court to have a law degree leaves many tenants without any assistance. Gov. Markell formed a committee to “review existing licensing regulations and recommend ways to eliminate unnecessary barriers to entry.”
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Written by Bridgette Harrison
Responsive Law has issued comments to the DC Committee on the Unauthorized Practice of Law recommending improvements to the District of Columbia's rules on the unauthorized practice of law, or UPL. Responsive Law urged the committee to recommend revising the UPL law so non-lawyers would be able to offer legal services to the many low- and moderate-income people who can't afford to use a lawyer. Written by Tom Gordon
Responsive Law has just released its Report Card on Barriers to Affordable Legal Help. The report card grades all 50 states and the District of Columbia on how their regulations regarding the practice of law restrict consumer access to the legal system. Unfortunately, the news is not good, with no state receiving a grade higher than a C. The report card graded three areas:
Written by Briane Cormish
As we reported previously, Responsive Law joined in an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court case of North Carolina Board of Dental Examiners v. Federal Trade Commission (hereinafter referred to as the Dental Examiners case). In the amicus brief, we brought to the Supreme Court’s attention the access to justice gap in America that is caused by over-regulation of the legal market and high barriers to entry that benefit lawyers at the expense of the public interest. We encouraged the Court to rule in favor of the FTC to ensure that regulations protect consumers, not market participants. The decision, handed down on Feb 25th, 2015, did just that. Written by Emily Lanucci
Currently, California is one of the many states in this country that has issues providing access to adequate and affordable legal services. Legal document assistants, or “LDAs”, assist self-representing parties in preparing legal documents. They help to reduce the issue of expensive or inaccessible legal representation, as they can act to provide limited legal assistance to parties that either do not need to hire an attorney or cannot afford to do so. |
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