A University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Law School program aims to match new lawyers in need of work with people who need legal help but can't pay the steep rate that most firms charge.
"Around 85 percent of the people who appear in court for custody, foreclosures, evictions, can't afford a lawyer," said Mary Lu Bilek, dean of the UMass Law School, citing a study. "At the same time, people are saying there are too many lawyers ... There's a mismatch between who needs lawyers and who has lawyers. We have to get serious about solving the problem."
That's where Justice Bridge on Franklin Street in downtown Boston comes in.
"Some of our clients may have lost hope and believe that justice is beyond their reach or legal representation is beyond their reach," said Len Zandrow, executive director of the program. "So, we're among other things providing justice for people and also restoring hope."
Without such a service, because of the cost of hiring a lawyer, people often take on child-custody disputes or mortgage foreclosures by themselves, unaware of their legal rights or the possible consequences, Zandrow said.
Justice Bridge will work to keep costs down by using technology such as discounted research tools, a database of 1,100 legal forms and what Zandrow called a "limited-representation model."
"It's a way to divide the work. Clients who can't afford a lawyer for all aspects of their case, they may take on some of the responsibility themselves and the lawyers will identify and work the most critical aspects of the case," he said. "The clients will probably be doing some of their own legal work under the guidance of the lawyers."
Such programs are crucial to the practical application of the law, Bilek said.
"The law doesn't operate because it's written in a book. When you're threatened with a legal problem, just because you should win because that's what the law says, doesn't mean you're going to," she said.
And the program offers key benefits for new lawyers — who often spend more than half their time looking for clients, Zandrow said. According to the American Bar Association, there is a 56 percent unemployment rate among 2012 law school graduates.
The program, Bilek said, is designed to jump-start careers of those new lawyers, not threaten smaller firms.
"Lawyers in practice turn away clients every day because they can't afford to pay the fees the lawyer needs to pay her bills," she said.
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