President Biden Seeks to Improve Access to Justice and LIT Chimes Into the Conversation

LIT COMMENTARY

LIT suggests the cost barriers for civil litigants in courts today are not just limited to low-income households. The fact is that lawyer hourly billing rates are generally 6x or so that of the average income earner.

For example, $100k annual salary seems comfortable right, but that averages out to $48.08 per hr. The average billing rate for a lower range lawyer is about $250 per hr and a paralegal or associate about $125 per hr so meld them together and for a small legal team to represent you is already going to have you empty your savings or 401k  to pay the fees if the litigation goes on for a period of time, which is commonplace. If your case is more complex, then law firms will want to add more lawyers onto the case or a partner to oversee, and generally their rates at the low end would easily be $650 plus per hr.

So the issue is not only about low income, it’s about lawyers billing rates and setting rates or providing fixed fee solutions that litigants can afford.

For example, Goodwin Procter — a firm that came in at No. 23 on the latest Am Law 100 ranking, generated $1,486,263,000 gross revenue in 2020. That’s right nearly $1.5 Billion dollars.

Courts should not be restricted to those with deep pockets or corporations, access to justice should not be a premium service, but that is exactly how it is today.

Biden takes executive action to boost legal services for low-income Americans

MAY 18, 2021 | REPUBLISHED BY LIT: MAY 19, 2021

Through his executive action, Mr. Biden directed Attorney General Merrick Garland to submit a plan within 120 days to expand the Justice Department’s work on access to justice. While the Justice Department under the Obama administration opened the Office for Access to Justice in 2010 to expand and improve access to lawyers and legal assistance.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions effectively shut down the office in 2018.

Garland is expected to issue his own memorandum Tuesday indicating the Justice Department’s efforts to increase access to legal resources will begin immediately.

Mr. Biden’s memorandum also re-establishes the White House Legal Aid Interagency Roundtable, which was launched in 2012 and formally established in 2015 by then-President Barack Obama. The roundtable is designed to raise awareness across the federal government of how civil legal aid advances federal objectives and improve access to justice.

Among the legal challenges the roundtable is set to address are those posed by the coronavirus pandemic, the White House said.

The pandemic “has further exposed and exacerbated inequities in our justice system, as courts and legal service providers have been forced to curtail in-person operations, often without the resources or technology to offer remote-access or other safe alternatives,” the memorandum states.

“These access limitations have compounded the effects of other harms wrought by the pandemic. These problems have touched the lives of many persons in this country, particularly low-income people and people of color.”

Since Mr. Biden took office, his administration has leveraged the authority of the federal government to advance criminal justice initiatives and address racial inequity.

The Justice Department opened civil investigations into the Minneapolis and Louisville Metro Police Departments following the deaths of Floyd and Breonna Taylor, respectively, by law enforcement.

Four former Minneapolis police officers were also indicted on federal civil rights charges for their role in Floyd’s death, while three Georgia men were charged with federal hate crimes for the 2020 killing of Ahmaud Arbery.