Panel Pursues Ideas to Fund Legal Services for Poor

• Jurisdiction: California,United States
• Citation: Vol. 04 No. 2014 Pg. 02
• Publication year: 2014
• Pages: 02
• Year: 2014

Panel pursues ideas to fund legal services for poor No. 2014 #02 California Bar Journal April, 2014

Rex Bossert, Staff Writer.

Only a complete overhaul of the way law is practiced will make legal services available to all who need them, according to USC Gould School of Law professor Gillian Hadfield

Speaking at the first meeting of a new State Bar task force on civil justice, Hadfield said that given the current "corporate form" of law practice, more than 90 percent of households cannot afford the legal services they need

She said the typical hourly rate for lawyers must be reduced from more than $200 an hour to about $40 so low- and middle-income people could afford them. "The thing we have to come to grips with is, the problem is cost," Hadfield said

Hadfield said the cost can be reduced through...