October 22, 2007
By Suzanne M. Blonder, Senior counsel, HALT, Washington, D.C.
To the Editor:
It's a shame that lawyers "aren't losing any sleep" over the New Jersey Supreme Court's recent decision to uphold a confidentiality rule that prohibits ordinary citizens from publicly disclosing information about the state's fee arbitration system.
Maintaining the gag rule in fee arbitration contradicts the court's own basis for striking down an attorney discipline confidentiality rule in 2005. And muzzling speech by clients who are disputing their lawyers' fees not only violates the First Amendment, but also diminishes public confidence in efforts to rein in skyrocketing legal fees.
A fee arbitration system may look effective on paper, but when clients' actual experiences with fee arbitration are kept in the dark, legal consumers can't help but distrust the system. This secrecy only adds to the public perception that lawyer regulation is actually of the lawyers, by the lawyers and for the lawyers.
© New Jersey Lawer, 2007
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