Legal Advice

In the litigious, heavily regulated, strictly policed society of the modern-day, 21st century United States, access to an understanding of the rights and services that are due to you in the event of any legal issues or difficulties can be an essential tool in times of stress deriving from a variety of sources. In such circumstances, it should be known to people requiring some measure of legal advice in order to chart a clear path through troubled legal waters that a cornerstone of the legal system is the provision made for giving out free legal advice to individuals who would otherwise have difficulty accessing it, a service which is referred to in the legal profession under the name of “pro bono” work. “Pro bono” derives from the lengthier phrase in Latin “pro bono publico,” which means “for the public good” and expresses the sense that the privilege of becoming and practicing as a lawyer should carry with it some sense of civic responsibility, such as can be provided in the help given to financially less secure individuals in the form of free legal advice.

Prospective lawyers should be made aware of the “pro bono” concept’s long place in the legal profession, as should individuals who feel that at some point they might require the benefit of legal advice but may not have the financial resources to pay for it.
It has been recommended by the American Bar Association (ABA) that lawyers in the United States fulfill this sense of responsibility to the greater public by providing free legal advice and other forms of legal service “pro bono” to those in need for a total of at least fifty hours a year, though opinions vary among more locally based bar associations as to the acceptable rates for providing legal advice without charge.

For instance, it is noted that the New York State Bar Association recommends that lawyers trained in and practicing in the state only feel obligated to provide a total of twenty hours of free legal advice per year, while the New York City Bar disagrees with this recommendation and has set out a quota of fifty hours’ worth of legal advice on an annual basis, in accordance with the generally based recommendation by the American Bar Association.

Various organizations and services work to coordinate and guarantee the delivery of legal advice on a pro bono basis to different sections of the public which may be requiring it, such as members of the armed services. In addition to this infrastructure, there have also been initiatives to ensure that large law firms with plentiful resources for delivering free legal advice keep up their commitment to providing such services. In a 2007 report that was compiled by a law student group and presented to The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, it was revealed that many such firms have been failing to keep up to recommended rates of giving out legal advice pro bono at the recommended hourly rates.