Evening star., 1939-08-27
Law Groups Move to Provide
Legal Service at Moderate Fees
Proposal for Joint Operation of Bureau for Those
of Low Income Is Approved by Three
Organizations in New York
BY ". J. C0burn.

. l. ObNfn.
an agency of mediation was emphasized.
The Philadelphia plan, sponsored by
the local guilds Committee on Legal
Service, tackles the problem from
different angle. 1t contemplates four
neighborhood law Offices in low-income
districts. Tentative designations are 4
foreign language district, Negro Sec
ton. suburban neighborhood and an
industrial area.
These Offices would be manned by
young attorneys-six to each ofice-who
would serve on a part-time basis for
small standard fees. A list of standard
fees would be made public.
To finance the plan the Philadelphia
committee hopes to obtain three-year
grant from foundation. The founda-
ton would bear the entire expense the
first year, tWo-thirds of it the second
year and third the third year. 1t is
the expectation of the sponsors that the
Offices would be selfsupporting by the
fourth year.
Opposition to the plans is expected
from the legal profession. Some attor-
neys, 1t is pointed out, fear the programs
would compete with private practice and
force reduction in the prevailing level
of fees. Others advocate an alternate
plan of educating the public to the need
for legal services. They say many lay
men are prejudiced against lawyers be-
cause of publicity given to disbarment
of of
ing presentations of attorneys in fiction
and movies.
Socialism Threat.
Recently r. H. Smith of Boston, a
member of the American Bar Associa-
tion's Committee on Legal Aid Work,
warned the bar against an impending
demand for 'socialized law" declaring
that if lawyers defaulted in their obli-
CATION to the great low-income group, it
would be "only a question of time" be-
fore the Government will be forced to
act.
He urged the legal profession to act
promptly to remedy situation in which
millions need legal help and know not
where to turn" while Hundreds of hon
est and competent lawyers, able and
eager to be of service, live on the border
line of starvation"
The Nations hundred-odd legal aid
organizations, assisting SOC 900 applicants
annually, have helped mitigate the prob
lem Smith reported to the American
Bar Association, but legal aid is in
tended to serve and does serve only the
really poor
speaking in terms of income the class
just above them is very large class
indeed. Figures of the National Bureau
of Economic Research indicate it is the
largest class in the country.
1T is composed OF independent, self
respecting, hard-working, home loving
Americans, who pay their own way, even
If that way be on the installment plan.
Just as the evidence is beginning to
accumulate that this great group has
had genuine difficulty in obtaining and
paying for adequate medical treatment
and disqualification, so the evidence is ac-
cumulating that it Is having the same
trouble in the matter of legal advice
and litigation.
For its dilemma this great group tends
to blame the bar. For relief it tends to
look to the Government. 1t is conscious
of its political power. If we default,
it is only question of time before the
Government is forced to act"
Discussing the same subject, Solicitor
General Robert H. Jackson bluntly told
the American Bar Association conven-
ton at San Francisco last month that
unless the legal profession could work
out solution, this problem will be likely
to be forced upon the Government"
Many Need Advice.
While the rich can pay their way with
lawyers and the poor can call upon pub
lie agencies, he said, millions of people
are denied counsel because their scale of
earning will not let them pay so much
for legal services as the modern lawyer
charges"
Considerable impetus for the three
plans already under way was provided
by Dean Lloyd K. Garrison of the Uni
versity of Wisconsin Law School in an
address at the second annual convention
of the National Lawyers Guild here
in February, 1898. He called attention
to the situation in plain, pithy words.
THE great mass of people don't know
any lawyers he said. 'They don't know
how to get one when they need one.
They ask some chap-the corner druggist,
maybe-and he tells them there's law
yer up the street, but he's never been
there himself, and he doesn't know the
man. They ask some one else, with the
same result. If finally they do stumble
onto lawyer, he may be all right or he
may be no good at ALL It's just blind
luck.
Generally they're in hurry and can't
wait to hunt all over the lot for the right
person-their wages have been gar
nisheed, or the furniture man with his
chattel mortgage is about to strip the
fiat, or the husband has fallen down a
defective stairway and broken his arm,
and his wages have been stopped and it's
a question Of getting something out of
the landlord before the grocer stops SELL
ing on credit" ...