Page 88 - Impact: Collected Essays on Expanding Access to Justice

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working poor,34 and Veterans legal services .35 Even with all of this additional funding, there are still enormous unmet civil legal services needs .
expanding Access to Justice Through Alternatives to full representation: A view from the field
It is beyond dispute that it is better for someone with a legal issue – whether it is an adversarial case in court or an out-of-court legal matter – to have full representation by a lawyer than to be unrepresented, regardless of whether the lawyer is provided through a right to counsel or available through increased funding for civil legal services .36 But even if the current efforts to establish a right to counsel in certain cases are successful and if funding for civil legal services increases even more substantially than it has already, the majority of New Yorkers with civil legal services needs who cannot afford an attorney will continue to go without such full representation for the foreseeable future . This does not mean, though, that those without full representation need go without any assistance to increase their access to justice . There are alternatives to full representation that can and do play an important role in bridging the justice gap .
New York State, with the judiciary at the helm,37 has been a leader in addressing the justice gap through alternatives to full representation . Over the years, programs to provide legal information to a large number of litigants and programs to provide limited representation have been established . Motivating all of these programs is the recognition that current resources are insufficient to provide full representation in all cases, and that alternatives can have a positive impact in cases, improving access to justice while at the same time recognizing that there is the potential for more to be done . As will be seen, each of these programs is unique, fulfilling its own niche within the broader effort to improve access to justice .38 NYLAG has participated in many of these efforts, allowing the author to draw on these experiences .
Legal Information
The first type of assistance less than full representation is the provision of legal information concerning the justice system . The general goal of such information is to make the legal system friendlier to pro se litigants .
34 New York City allocated $1.725 million in legal services for the working poor in Fiscal Year 2016. Id.
35 New York City devoted $350,000 to Veterans legal services in Fiscal Year 2016. Id. at 103.
36 Of course, there may be situations in which a lawyer does more harm than good. But a lawyer complying with the rules of ethics should not cause such harm. For example, the New York Rules of Professional Conduct require “competency,” with the Rules describing “competent representation” as representation that “requires the legal knowledge, skill, thoroughness, and preparation reasonably necessary for the representation.” n.y. rules of Prof’l conducT r.1.1.
37 In some respects, the judiciary has more of an incentive to address the justice gap through alternatives to full representation. While the loyalty of practicing attorneys lies with their clients, the judiciary is responsible for the legal system as a whole. See Fern Fisher, Moving Toward a More Perfect World: Achieving Equal Access to Justice Through a New Definition of Judicial Activities, 17 cuny l. reV. 285, 286 (2014) (“[T]he judge’s role also includes stewardship over the improvement of laws, the legal system, and the administration of justice.”).
38 Some have termed this “100% access,” defined as “a system in which we can provide some form of effective legal assistance to all people facing civil legal issues.” Alteneder & Rexer, supra note 12, at 7.
Impact: Collected Essays on Expanding Access to Justice