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The Freedom of Legal Information Project is designed to stimulate and inform public policy debates regarding the right to speak and write about the U.S. legal system and how it functions. This project seeks to reform state court rules and statutes that prohibit the "unauthorized practice of law" and to expand the alternatives available for legal consumers.
Although millions of low and moderate income Americans are priced out of the civil justice system simply because they cannot afford a lawyer, many state bar associations, courts and district attorneys are currently misusing unauthorized practice of law rules to attack inexpensive alternatives to hiring a lawyer, including independent paralegals, legal self-help publishers and volunteers.
The Freedom of Legal Information Project works to advocate reform of the lawyer monopoly on legal services through advocacy before bar associations, legislatures and courts. It also seeks to educate consumers of legal services about their rights in finding and using the legal assistance most appropriate for their needs.
- HALT filed comments with the state supreme court opposing a measure that would allow the Board of Legal Document Preparers to test applicants for certification as legal document preparers on substantive areas of the law. HALT's comments pointed out that LDPs are not lawyers, and should not face a "miniature bar exam" to earn the right to fill out documents.
- HALT filed an amicus curiae brief in the case King v. First Capital Financial Services, which concerns whether mortgage document preparation by a non-lawyer is the unauthorized practice of law. In its brief, HALT urged the court to follow a nationwide trend of court decisions that have acknowledged that not every legal need-in this case, simple document preparation-demands a lawyer. The case will be argued before the Illinois Supreme Court on September 28. The court should issue a decision in late 2004 or early 2005.
- HALT filed comments with the state's supreme court regarding a proposed new definition of the practice of law. HALT commended the court and the Utah Judicial Council for drafting a proposed rule that would protect legal consumers' access to a range of legal service providers, including less expensive non-lawyers. HALT recommended modifications to the rule that would ensure that the definition would be used to protect legal consumers from fraudulent service providers, rather than to protect lawyers from economic competition.
- HALT weighed in on a double standard in the impeachment of Governor John Rowland. State lawmakers proposed legislation allowing out-of-state lawyers to work on impeachment matters for the governor and the legislature. HALT Senior Counsel Tom Gordon wrote a commentary for the Connecticut Law Tribune on the hypocrisy of the legislature allowing a greater choice of legal service providers for itself than it does for the rest of the state.
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