Written by Tom Gordon
In the 1990's, Canon aired a series of commercials for its Rebel line of cameras featuring Andre Agassi. The implication was that Agassi was a rebel since he had (at the time) long hair and occasionally wore a splash of color on traditionally white tennis apparel. After viewing these commercials, I coined the term "tennis rebel" to describe someone who is completely mainstream, but who is deemed a rebel for ever-so-slightly pushing the boundaries of a staid subculture.
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Written by Tom Gordon
In other news, the sun rose in the east today. The results of this year's Gallup poll of Americans' views of various industries shouldn't surprise anyone, at least with regard to people's opinions of lawyers. Only 29 percent had a favorable view of lawyers, placing the legal field 20th out of 25 industries surveyed. Lawyers have had the same low approval rating fairly consistently over the ten years of the survey's existence. Written by Tom Gordon
A new book published by the Brookings Institution is calling for massive deregulation of the legal system. The book, First Thing We Do, Let's Deregulate All the Lawyers, uses statistical analysis to prove that the cost of legal services is made artificially high by monopolistic practices. These practices include restrictions on who may practice law (and the broad definition of the practice of law), unnecessary restrictions on the number of graduates from accredited law schools, and a legal system that is often impossible to navigate without professional help. Written by Tom Gordon
In an ongoing battle over whether LegalZoom is engaged in the unauthorized practice of law in Missouri, a federal district court has rejected a motion by LegalZoom to declare that it is not engaged in UPL. This means that it will be up to a jury to decide whether consumers in Missouri will have access to LegalZoom's services. Written by Tom Gordon
Daniel Fisher of Forbes.com spoke with us recently about the problems with unauthorized practice of law restrictions. He went on to write this column about how the vagueness of UPL laws makes it impossible for service providers to know whether they are providing services legally if those services are even tangentially related to law. The column gives some excellent examples of the legal challenges businesses have faced as they provide services in estate planning, finance, and traffic violation resolution, among others areas. One point we'd like to add to Fisher's analysis is that the challenges faced by businesses become challenges faced by consumers. When businesses cannot provide these services, consumers are stuck with two options: hire an expensive lawyer to help them with writing a will or fighting a traffic ticket, or take on the matter without assistance of any kind. Consumers deserve the choice to hire expert assistance for important life decisions, regardless of whether the expertise comes from a lawyer, financial planner, online software designers, or any other service provider. Tom Gordon is Executive Director of Responsive Law. |
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