2002 UCLA J.L. & Tech. Notes 35

Online Legal Help
 by Isaac Ben Simon

According to a recent study, the average hourly billing rate for partners at American law firms is $183/hr. 1 The same study cites the average associate billing rate at $139/hr. 2 Since the median household income in America hovers around $40,000, and the median minority household income remains substantially lower, it is unsurprising that many Americans find attorney fees prohibitive. 3 Yet the majority of indicators suggest that America is more litigious than ever. 4 It should therefore come without shock that legal self-help is on the rise. Although national estimates of legal self-representation are unavailable because individual jurisdictions track pro se litigants differently, "snapshots from individual courts suggest their numbers are large and getting larger." 5

Legal self-help books and do-it-yourself legal forms proliferate. The New York Times reported earlier this year that We The People Forms and Service Centers, Inc., a chain of franchised legal document preparation services, is growing rapidly while expanding across the country. 6 Moreover, a number of websites providing legal documentation and legal information for non-lawyer consumers have sprung up over the last few years. Among the more prominent of these websites are FindLaw.com, a site that principally offers legal news and information; Nolo.com, a site that provides legal information and do-it-yourself legal literature; and LegalZoom.com, a site that offers legal information, legal documentation, and legal filing.

www.nolo.com
www.findlaw.com
www.legalzoom.com
 

Footnotes

1. http://www.lawyers.com/lawyers-com/content/legalresources/billingrates.html(12/9/99)
2. Id.
3. According to the US Census Bureau, the median household income in 2000 was $43,148. The median African American and Hispanic households earn $30,439 and $33,447, respectively. http://www.census.gov/prod/2001pubs/p60-213.pdf (1).
4. According to the US Census Bureau, for example, legal services as a share of the GDP rose steadily from 1990 to 1998 to over $116 billion. Statistical Abstract of the United States, 2000 (452).
5. Seattle Times, "Do-it-Yourself Lawyering Seems to be on Rise in U.S." (12/9/99)
6. New York Times, "Without A Lawyer; Chain of Legal Self-Help Centers is Expanding Across U.S." (7/31/01).

 

 

 

 

 

 

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