[...]... and legal procedures Fed Up With the Legal System sets out many positive ways to do this But we know from two decades of experience that trying to improve legal access from outside the system is an uphill struggle To make these reforms happen before the end of this century, there’s something else we need do: appeal to a long-lost sense of duty and responsibility of American lawyers to run an open and. .. mostly lawyers They assert that the system protects beneficiaries by making sure they receive property left to them and protects creditors by making sure they are paid from the estate The reality is that very few estates need these alleged benefits Most people use a will to leave their property to a few loved ones and to name a trusted friend or family member to supervise distribution And most people... door -to- door sales, to auto safety, to honest funeral practices, to cleaning up the environment, hard-working, dedicated members of the legal profession have led the way One of these days, this same impulse to make America a better place will be directed at our own profession And with this renewed dedication to making the law accessible to all, lawyers will regain the public trust and respect they... when we explain how to look up an important consumer protection law, we also must tell people how to decipher the almost incomprehensible jargon in which it is written Similarly, when we explain the mechanics of going to trial, our discussion would be incomplete without advice on how to cope with clerks and judges who are likely to be hostile to non-lawyers Even worse is trying to explain legal procedures... it provides fat attorney fees when someone dies Second, at the same time lawyers can sell people living trusts and other expensive schemes to avoid probate Against this background of a legal system in crisis, Fed Up With the Legal System sets out an agenda for legal reform and renewal It comprises a series of practical proposals for making the American legal system more understandable, affordable and. .. “live greatly in the law,” but that to do so a lawyer must look for the rational connection between the day -to- day struggle and the frame of the universe.’’ We make no claim that Holmes was in favor of legal self-help, but without question he advocated that lawyers stretch their horizons beyond day -to- day concerns and interests to cope with larger questions of their profession and their lives His advice... sensible—that threaten its monopoly over providing Americans with access to the law The harder it is for people to solve their legal problems on their own, lawyer groups seem to reason, the more business there is for lawyers If you doubt this, consider for a minute your ability to solve your own legal problems Even if you earn $25 an hour—an above- average wage it won’t be easy for you to buy services from... substitutes could appear At these times, an attorney, or responsalis, represented the absent party Inevitably, substitution became more and more common and soon, despite a great deal of resistance, attorneys became a fixture These attorneys were not officers of the court or a recognized profession, but as early as the 12th century, certain names began to show up suspiciously often By the 13th century, the. .. clerks and judges hostile to self-representation Statutes that prescribe fines and jail for any non-lawyer (even a trained paralegal) who sells you affordable legal help What can we do to improve legal access? First, and most important, as citizens we can and should demand that our legislators make the dozens of changes necessary to restore to all Americans their democratic right to understand their... when they die What debts remain can simply be paid from the property they leave For the rare estate with tangled finances or complex legal claims, court supervision can be valuable But that’s no reason to require all wills to go through probate Because probate has become widely discredited and mistrusted, a substantial industry has grown up to show people how to avoid it People who take the time and . Lithograph COPYRIGHT © 1994 BY NOLO PRESS PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Fed up with the legal system? : what’s wrong and how to fix it / by Nolo Press editors. 2nd. should demand that our legislators make the dozens of changes necessary to restore to all Americans their democratic right to understand their own laws and legal procedures. Fed Up With the Legal. threaten its monopoly over providing Americans with access to the law. The harder it is for people to solve their legal problems on their own, lawyer groups seem to reason, the more business there