Who’s lacking access to lawyers? People may be lacking the money to pay for them, but there’s plenty of access.
If you buy a house, you’ll need a lawyer. And even if you keep a lawyer on retainer, you’ll want a real estate for a closing anyway, so your retained lawyer can likely only recommend someone. If you don’t have a enough money for lawyers anyway, you can make a will and other similar chores without one. If you get charged with a crime, and you can’t afford a lawyer… you know the rest. If you have a real need for a lawyer, and you can’t afford one, there are plenty of lawyers who will let you pay off their fee over time, and substantially discount their fees as well (great, now I’ll go to hell for saying nice things about lawyers). I don’t think many people lack any real access to lawyers.
I thought I’d want to know people to..well, know them. Not to use them in a “what-can-you-do-for-me” gross way.
As for lawyers, I pay $6 a month for legal insurance. In the 13+ years I’ve had that insurance, I’ve used it once to have them write a letter to my landlord back when I rented an apartment. I didn’t need them to, but figured I’d try out the service I was paying for.
May want to amend that to ‘may need’ as when I bought my house, there wasn’t a lawyer in sight, including at the closing. I would suspect there are many, many people who had the same experience. Hell, even the real estate agent was pretty much absent. The mortgage lender did most of the work for me and I’ll be eternally grateful to her. She was the very best there is.
I had that legal insurance as well and it was kind of nice when I got ripped off by a shady landlord. I ended up using my legal insurance to sue the bastards and got my money back and my credit reinstated. Had I not had legal insurance at the time, I would have sucked it up and just paid money I didn’t have for stuff I wasn’t responsible for, per the lease.
The only other occasions I can think of when I might need a lawyer is will/power of attorney and/or divorce. I am not married, so a divorce lawyer will not be necessary. And I think I can do the will/POA through LegalZoom. I have a good friend who has a law firm with another friend of ours and they do mostly ambulance-chasing liability claim stuff and some DUI defense kind of things. Haven’t needed to call them for any reason so far.
Glad that worked out for you. It shouldn’t be necessary in a simple sale, but for most people buying a house it’s a good idea. I wish I had a better lawyer when I bought my first house.
I’m in law school right now and they keep bandying about the term “access to justice” to describe the problem with low income people getting legal counsel. It’s a serious issue; a lot of my friends are in legal clinics dealing with landlord tenant disputes, representing people who fight landlords threatening to call child services and have their kids taken away if they don’t hurry up with the rent. It sounds like something cartoonishly evil out of a ‘B’ movie.
So in that respect, I guess the question is “Some lawyers can’t, or don’t want to, work for impecunious clients.” It’s probably different in the states than here in Canada, but I’m still a bit surprised by the people chiming in, who think that it’s a flat out ridiculous premise that someone doesn’t have access to a lawyer. Obviously, calling one up in the yellow pages who wants cash up front doesn’t do you much good if you’re broke and facing eviction.
Fair enough. The OP is much more dopey than the discussion I thought we had at hand. I’ve used a lawyer via my mum once or twice so far in life, and it seems like the sort of thing where you either know a guy, or know a guy who knows a guy. I wouldn’t compare a lawyer to a dentist or G.P., either, unless you’re some jetsetting billionaire business tycoon who needs an army of them on retainer.
I’m 36, have purchased a house, had a few speeding tickets, and I’ve never once thought about needing a lawyer for anything. The closest I’ve ever come was when we were moving away from our home state with my stepson, and I was trying to figure out what my legal obligations were in regards to his father. In the end, all I had to do was read my wife’s divorce decree. It wasn’t that complicated.
I’m 60, and I used a lawyer to buy our house in NJ (where everyone uses a lawyer) and to set up our trust and will in California. I’m not counting patent attorneys paid for by my employer.
However, I agree with the OP in the sense that if you live in NJ you definitely need a lawyer on retainer all the time. PM me and I’ll send you my son-in-law’s name.
We let the vast majority of people not keep up with the inflation of hiring professional services. Law school has grown quite expensive, but the demand for legal services at a “professional” rate isn’t there, when most people can’t afford it.
You don’t need a lawyer for speeding tickets or wills. The vast majority of people will not need to worry about bankruptcy or medical malpractice, and divorce is only ~50% of married people.
If you do need a lawyer for an issue that arises, you can find one then. You don’t need to have “access” to one beyond having access to Google or a phone book or just asking your friends “hey, know any good lawyers?” Example: my mom served as the executor of a will and needed a lawyer to help her with some thorny aspects of it. So she asked around, did some research, found one, handled the problem, and bid him adieu.
No need to keep one on retainer, especially since lawyers specialize and one lawyer can’t cover all the potential needs. You don’t want the same lawyer handling your DUI who handles your divorce or your medmal case. Unless you want to lose any of them.
I also question what you even mean by “access”. Auto mechanics? I just ask around and take my car into whoever will do it cheapest. Police? Call 911. Club owners and hotel managers? What??
Now of course, if you want to talk about what antonio107 is, in that it’s difficult for low-income people to find lawyers to handle their cases - then sure, fine. But I don’t think that’s what you’re talking about when you mention it in the same breath as having “access” to club owners.
I’m doing family law and criminal defense…and will consider damn near anything else that walks in the door. Granted, I practice in a rural area, but most of the small firm/solo guys around here do a little bit of everything.
If sleazy means wanting superior service and wanting to save a buck or two, then let it be! :rolleyes:
I have two friends who are legal assistants, both of them work for traffic lawyers (and other types of lawyers). They routinely get clients who want traffic tickets taken care of. If you get too many moving violations, points can add up, increasing car insurance payments. Also, if you’re in the transportation industry or interested in joining it in the future, having moving violations can be a strike against you.
Stuff like medical malpractice and bankruptcy can happen to anyone. You can live a very healthy and responsible lifestyle and some doctor can botch a procedure. A very common way people go bankrupt, is not only credit card debt, but medical expenses. Shit happens, no one is completely immune.
Well, I must say that you guys have a lot more balls than I do. I like to know people, or be known through mutual connections, before I use someone’s services. The thought of risking my time and money on someone who I might not like or may not like me, makes me very anxious.
