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Contact: Kristin Weber or Tom Gordon at 202/887-8255
Washington, D.C.—On February 4, the State Bar of Georgia Standing Committee on the Unlicensed Practice of Law will hold a public meeting to consider whether the right to prepare articles of incorporation should be limited to lawyers alone. HALT submitted written comments to the standing committee, pointing out that preparing articles of incorporation is not the practice of law while underscoring the necessity of protecting legal consumer access to nonlawyer service providers—such as accountants or legal document preparers.
The Georgia Bar's consideration of this issue follows a series of similar cases across the nation. Recent decisions to strike down these unauthorized practice opinions in several states represent a growing trend toward protecting consumers against a legal monopoly over services that do not demand a lawyer. Unfortunately, Georgia's stance on the practice of law has run contrary to the consumer-friendly positions of states like California, Arizona and Utah. In 2003, Georgia declared nonlawyers—including employees of title companies, mortgage firms and banks—who prepare or facilitate real estate closings to be engaging in the unlicensed practice of law.
"Georgia has always led the South in welcoming a modern, flexible economy. However, these anticompetitive measures show that the lawyer monopoly is battling the new economy rather than embracing it," says HALT Senior Counsel Thomas Gordon.
HALT advocates a continuum of legal services to match the continuum of legal consumer needs. This not only connects consumers with the most qualified service provider, but it also promotes an atmosphere of competition and consumer choice. Urging the standing committee to consider these aspects of the public interest at stake, Gordon stated, "To use the regulatory power of the Georgia Bar to prohibit competition is a disservice to consumers."
HALT has worked to abolish a number of other unauthorized practice restrictions that unnecessarily thwart competition in order to protect lawyers. HALT holds up the simple definition that the unauthorized practice of law means saying you are a lawyer when you are not.
Founded in 1978, HALT—An Organization of Americans for Legal Reform is a nonpartisan, nonprofit public interest organization. HALT pursues an aggressive education and advocacy program that challenges the legal establishment to improve access, increase accountability and reduce costs in the civil justice system.
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