Access to Justice
Effective July 1, 2016, the Massachusetts bar exam will include essay questions related to access to justice issues. The questions will cover practice areas typically handled by legal aid services, self help services and pro se parties, such as Landlord-Tenant, child support, custody and divorce, as well as practice areas like consumer protection, personal care issues like health care proxies, advance directives, and civil committal. Also, the questions will cover representation of nonprofits, as well as ethical rules about limited assistance/limited scope representation and general issues of professional responsibility.
Chicago Appleseed is thrilled to see a state bar take access to justice so seriously that they expect new attorneys to demonstrate a basic grasp of the issues in order to gain their license. Much like New York’s pro bono requirement for new admittees, the Massachusetts bar exam questions on access to justice remind young attorneys of the relationship of the law to the character of our communities. The duty attorneys have to improve access to justice through pro bono, public service and a thoughtful approach to their own practice cannot be emphasized enough in legal education and licensure.
The Illinois Supreme Court has taken action recently to improve access to justice in Illinois, adopting in 2013 new rules to clarify and expand limited scope representation. Limited scope representation happens when a person hires an attorney to handle only part of their legal matter. It improves access to justice by making legal services more affordable. By offering assistance to litigants who may be able to handle much of the matter on their own, limited scope representation helps preserve the litigant’s rights, improve understanding of their responsibilities, and also ensure that matters come before the court in a form which a judge is able to act upon.
Also in 2013, Governor Quinn signed the Access to Justice Act, aimed primarily at helping veterans and active duty servicemembers who are facing civil lawsuits. The law also provides funding for legal self-help centers in law libraries, creates a task force to review court fees as a means of funding legal aid, and establishes a “civil Gideon pilot”, which makes Illinois the second state to offer state-supported legal counsel in civil cases, outside of certain matters dealing with parental rights and involuntary committal.
We hope both the Supreme Court and the legislature will continue to emphasis legal assistance, pro bono and access to justice in its oversight and regulation of the legal profession, perhaps adopting pro bono requirements of its own or adding access to justice education requirements to our bar exam. Illinois should be at the forefront of change in improving the quality of justice for all participants by emphasizing public service in the profession.