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Lack of Access to Legal Services

The demand for legal services is staggering.  Globally, two thirds of people who require legal help can’t access the assistance they need.  As an industry, we need to prioritize helping these underserved communities.

The good news is it doesn’t necessarily mean working for free.  Forward thinking firms are already leveraging the latest legal tech to change their business model in ways which open the opportunity to close the justice gap.

We sat down with Maya Markovich to talk about how law firms can use technology to grow their business while helping clients who are most in need.  We covered the following topics:

• Over 80% of people who need legal assistance can’t access it
• Legal aid and pro bono does not bridge the gap
• Serving underserved communities and profit aren’t mutually exclusive

Over 80% of people who need legal assistance can’t access it

In 2021 the World Justice Project ranked the U.S. 126 out of 139 countries when it comes to affordability of access to justice.  There’s a well-known statistic that over 80% percent of the people that need legal assistance can’t get the help they need. 

On the criminal side we have the highest rates of incarceration in the world.  While on the civil side we see at least one party being self-represented in 75% of matters.  People are forced to self-represent in a lot of matters, but that creates another problem because the system isn’t set up for the average everyday person.  It’s set up for lawyers to run as a business.    

Beyond the quantifiable numbers, there's a hidden crisis of people who have legal problems and choose not to take action because it can cost hundreds of dollars simply to respond.  They're shut out of the civil justice system, so they're not included in the well-known statistics.  The unfortunate fact that there are two systems of justice, one for those that can’t access their rights, and another for those who can afford attorneys.

Legal aid and pro bono does not bridge the gap

Assuming average hourly rates - if each unserved matter got just one hour from an attorney it would become a sixty-billion-dollar market overnight.  To put that in perspective, it’s more than is spent on all state and federal public criminal defense and the DOJ budget combined.  Currently we only spend about $1.8 billion on closing the justice gap, which is less than three percent of the estimated need.  Even if we quadrupled the budget, it would not make a dent.

Unfortunately, the shortfall is so large that legal aid and pro-bono are basically never going to be able to fill the need on their own.  Which is devastating because there’s a lot of incredible work happening there.  Even with a lot of new lawyers making racial justice and underserved communities their life’s work, we can’t train enough lawyers to solve the problem using the status quo ways of practicing law.

As an industry, we need to focus on how our business model can change through use of technology.  We need to find ways of making it possible for firms to turn a profit as they help to close the justice gap.

Serving underserved communities and profit aren’t mutually exclusive

There’s a fear that technology is going to innovate lawyers out of existence.  A lot of people think that the work is going away with the implementation of technology, but it’s exactly the opposite.  The amount of work to be done is increasing, it’s changing, and there’s more work than ever before.

If we’re going to profitably close the justice gap, firms need to embrace the possibilities that legal tech brings to the table.  The ability to productize and automate your firm’s turn-the-crank work is revolutionizing the number of clients a lawyer can carry and what kind of matters are economically viable to pursue.  We’ve seen firms improve their operations and project management practices such that they can serve vastly more clients.  By doing things more efficiently, simplifying the intake process, minimizing overhead, and changing their billing process, firms can dramatically increase their capacity.

Beyond the efficiency that technology can bring, there’s also movement toward changing how we think about billing for legal services.  Unbundling work from the billable hour model opens a lot of possibilities to productize services.  There’s a tendency amongst lawyers to think of their work as being completely bespoke.  In reality, there’s a lot of repetition that can be automated through software and turned into discrete offerings which are sold at a price point that far more people can afford.

From the firm’s perspective, automation and productization can mean a serious increase in revenue.  When you’re able to decouple man hours from income, the potential for scalability becomes almost limitless.

Wrapping up

The justice gap has always existed.  Throughout history it’s been left to a civic minded few to try and address the issue through things like pro-bono legal aid. Now there are a lot of firms, lawyers, and tech companies, all attacking the issue from multiple angles.

Over the last few years, we’ve gotten to a place where effective use of tech can make a real difference.  It takes a change of mindset and business model which doesn’t come easily.  We finally have the tools to enable lawyers to turn a profit while they help people.

 

Disclaimer

Daniels-Head Insurance Agency (DHIA) seeks thoughts and insights from a variety of individuals and organizations in the industry. The guest content on this blog represents the individual opinion of the author and not that of DHIA. Nor is it the opinion of DHIA’s underwriters and business partners. Neither DHIA nor DHIA’s business partners are recommending, endorsing, or sponsoring any companies, or third parties mentioned in this blog.