ABA backs off low-cost legal effort
The American Bar Association has backed off a plan to offer lower-cost legal services to small businesses and individuals after pushback from bar leaders in Pennsylvania and Illinois.
The American Bar Association has backed off a plan to offer lower-cost legal services to small businesses and individuals after pushback from bar leaders in Pennsylvania and Illinois.
The ABA launched the pilot project last October with Rocket Lawyer, a Web-based lawyer referral service, in Pennsylvania, Illinois, and California.
The goal was to make legal services available to individuals and small businesses who typically cannot afford them and do not qualify for legal aid.
Bar leaders in Pennsylvania and Illinois bitterly opposed the program, however. They said that the service would siphon work from local lawyers and that clients would have no way to judge the quality of the legal advice or to find out whether the lawyer providing it had malpractice insurance.
William Pugh, president of the Pennsylvania Bar Association, said that group considered leaving the ABA because of the program.
The Philadelphia Bar Association was equally critical.
"The ABA's new venture with Rocket Lawyer is a sharp departure from its own model rules and core values," wrote Philadelphia bar chancellor Gaetano Alfano in the Philadelphia Bar Reporter, a bar association publication. "In short, the American Bar Association hypocritically allows Rocket Lawyer to use its logo and imprimatur without holding Rocket Lawyer to quality assurance standards."
Alfano's criticism triggered a retort from ABA president Paulette Brown, who denied that the ABA had weakened professional standards.
"All core values that apply to lawyers through the rules of professional conduct were adhered to," Brown said in a statement.
But, in the face of strong opposition from Pennsylvania bar leaders and other bar associations around the nation, the ABA quietly shut down the program in January.
The ABA project, called ABA Law Connect, was created not only to help individuals and small business find affordable legal representation, but also to expand career opportunities for underemployed lawyers in search of new clients.
For $4.95, potential clients could briefly consult online with a lawyer by posing one question and a follow-up. If that proved fruitful, both parties could then negotiate formal legal representation.
"ABA Law Connect is an exciting opportunity for the ABA and Rocket Lawyer to assist small businesses, connecting them with ABA members, and represents one of many efforts by the ABA to improve access to legal services," the ABA's Brown said at the time.
The Pennsylvania Bar Association offers its own lawyer referral service with a $30 fee for an initial consultation.
Alfano, the Philadelphia Bar Association chancellor, said the city referral program and others serve as important sources of revenue and help pay for pro bono representations, public education campaigns, and other effort.
Pugh said there also were concerns about client confidentiality, because the initial exchanges between clients and lawyers took place over the Internet.
But the central issue, Pugh said, was that the ABA program could divert work from local lawyers.
"You talk about the Main Street business owner, a typical business in the middle of the state, and that is the bread and butter for a lawyer who hangs their shingle on Main Street in a small town," Pugh said.
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