Swaying the Balance of Justice

1. Swaying the Balance of Justice The Ethics of Mitigating Low-Income Legal Inequality through Electronic Resources by Ean Kryska

2. What is Unbundling? • According to Hornsby • Menu driven • Clients pick representation options

3. Comprehensive Legal Needs Study • Results • Half of all households faced a situation that raised a legal issue • If a household faced one legal issue, it was just as likely that it faced more than one • 38% of low-income households took no legal action to alleviate their need

4. Why? • Some households were slightly above or below the eligibility line and they believed they were ineligible • Some households believed that legal help would not solve their problems • Some were slightly above the eligibility line, yet could not afford private help

5. Usefulness of Online Resources • Online Resources • Lawyer or individual firm websites • Completecase.com, Legalzoom.com, Mylawyer.com • Document assembly • General information • Lawguru.com • Can freely ask questions once every 30 days • Randomly distributes your questions to attorneys in your area • No information can replace a meeting with a real attorney • Online directories • Cross referencing of legal matters w/jurisdiction • Online lawyer referral services • Some may require lawyers to meet objective standards • Multifunctional information and advice sites • Findlaw.com • Case-bidding services • Legalmatch.com

6. Ethical Dilemmas • Ghost-writing and Document Assembly • Usually, pro se litigants’ submissions are treated liberally • Litigants may be defrauding the court and attorneys have a duty of candor • States should force attorneys to put their names on the pleadings, but not force them to file appearances

7. Counter-argument in favor of ghost-writing • Courts can almost be guaranteed of a competently written pleading • Court can still treat litigant’s appearance in court liberally, while knowing that, at least, the litigant’s pleadings are accurate • Lawyers should not be afraid to put their names on ghost-written pleadings because their level of responsibility for submitting an accurate pleading is no different than normal • Courts know who is responsible for the pleadings

8. Advice-giving / Document Assembly Software • Programs like Quicken Family Lawyer • Adds and removes entire clauses in order to customize documents • Interviews user • Texas changed its UPL statute to allow for programs like QFL • As long as there is a clear advisory on the product stating that the consumer should not rely on the product as it would an attorney, product should be allowed

9. Reynoso • BPPs who sold licenses to access internet software that would prepare bankruptcy petition forms • BPPs were not identified in petition forms that users would print out • Transformed raw data into completed forms

10. Online Advice is the Same as Advice in the Real World • The more specific the advice given, the greater the likelihood that an attorney-client relationship has formed • Non-lawyers and UPL • Palmer, case of an owner of a website alleged to have given out free legal advice (amoralethics.com) • Court had no concrete evidence that Palmer had responded to questions with advice to specific inquiries • Key element is tailoring of advice to the needs of a specific person