People v. State

In fact, why not make it 3000 hours, and get rid of the last two years of law school, leaving in the one year of coursework that’s left more than enough of the Socratic Method to teach aspiring lawyers how to “think like lawyers”?

Of course, unlicensed “lawyers” are not currently permitted to provide legal services except under the supervision of a licensed lawyer, so we would probably need to also impose on licensed lawyers, as a price for their monopoly, a pro bono requirement to provide such supervision.

Now, throwing that amount of pro bono hours into the market for legal services would not only completely solve the problem of access to justice for the poor, it might more than solve it, and seriously distort the market, so in this connection it’s important to note that “pro bono” has traditionally included not only working for free but also working for a significantly reduced fee.

Of course, the ideal towards which this solution would be a step in the right direction is a completely free market in legal services.

Follow