Can Berkeley books be banned for impersonating attorneys in Texas?

That's the question pending right now in the Lone Star State where a subcommittee of the Texas Supreme Court is investigating Nolo Press, the prominent Berkeley publisher of self-help legal aid books and software.

All states forbid the unauthorized practice of law, but Nolo Press says Texas is the only state that goes after publishers. A hearing will be held Aug. 20 in Dallas to determine whether Nolo's books should be banned in Texas.

"They're trying to prevent self-help law in Texas," Steve Elias, associate publisher and general counsel of Nolo Press, said Wednesday. "If you don't have these kinds of books, you have to go to a lawyer. If you do have these types of books, you don't have to go to a lawyer."

Nolo, which has been publishing since 1971, has sold more than 7 million books and software programs and it has never been challenged or received complaints about its products until now, Elias said.

It was an attorney serving on the Supreme Court of Texas's Unauthorized. Practice of Law Committee that started the ruckus in June 1997. Texas attorney Jeffrey A. Lehmann accused Nolo Press of violating his state's statute banning the unauthorized practice of law.

Lehmann said in a letter to Nolo Press executives that Nolo's Living Trust Maker is suspected of violating Texas law because its "software and user's guide ... represent that your forms as well as the suggested information to be inserted will properly affect legal rights."

At first the investigation focused solely on the Living Trust Maker software. But the probe soon was broadened to include all the company's approximately 80 self-help legal aid products on sale in Texas.

The precedent for the investigation was set by a 1992 state court of appeals ruling upholding a ban on a book by Vijay Fadia, "You and Your Will: A Do-It-Yourself Manual," which is not a Nolo publication.

James Turner, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based consumer group Help Abolish Legal Tyranny, said he thinks Nolo Press is innocent of any wrongdoing.

Turner said he thinks the Texas law is a blatant-power and money grab by Texas attorneys who are likely fearing of losing business if people start resorting to self-help books instead of lawyers.

"You can't practice law unless you have a license to practice law," Turner said. "The more broadly you define what constitutes the practice of law, the more exclusively people have to turn to lawyers to solve all their problems."

Over the last year, the Berkeley company has been corresponding with the Texas authorities to find out exactly how its books may be breaking the law and resolve the dispute, but to no avail.

At the hearing Aug. 20, a Dallas subcommittee of the Unauthorized Practice of Law Committee will hear evidence in the Nolo Press case to determine whether its products may constitute an unauthorized practice of law.

After that hearing, the panel will decide whether to dismiss the investigation, seek more information, or recommend the filing of a lawsuit to ban Nolo Press books in Texas.

Elias said Texas accounts for almost 8 percent of Nolo's $10 million annual revenue.

Attempts to reach Lehmann on Wednesday were unsuccessful. The committee has not commented publicly on its investigation.

"The crowning irony to me is it's not like this is a consumer generated complaint," Turner said. "This is something the lawyers have generated, not someone who is unhappy with a product that's on the market."