We will not have a meeting of the Executive Council or House of Delegates of the Arkansas Bar Association prior to November 6, 1973, so the comments made in this letter necessarily will represent my personal ideas rather than constituting a formal position of the Arkansas Bar Association. I am pleased that your committee is studying this matter, because it is a definite problem confronting many citizens.

One of the most difficult facets of the problem is that no one
possible solution fits the entire United States. Remedies which
might be effective in a sparsely populated state such as Arkansas
can be completely ineffective in metropolitan areas, and the
reverse similarly is true. This is the reason most potential
solutions probably will fail if they are attempted in blanket
form throughout the country.

It seems to me that some of the important considerations are as follows:

1. One of the most effective methods of making legal
services readily available to medium income
citizens is through a program of prepaid legal
services. Such a program can be tailored to meet
the situation in any geographical area. The greatest
difficulty with this approach is that most citizens
do not realize their need for legal services until
it is too late. If the subcommittee could find a
way to make the public aware of the need for prepaid
legal services, great strides can be made in making
legal services available to middle income citizens
at a reasonable cost.

2.

Development of more small claims courts in which
citizens can obtain adjudication of small claims
without the necessity of legal representation. The
primary problem here is the funding of such programs.

Page 2

3.

4.

5.

6.

Elimination of absurd restrictions on legal fees,
such as the one imposed on Veterans' claims. The
only result of such arbitrary restrictions is to
deny a citizen legal representation.

Requirement that the government pay an attorney's fee to the citizen's attorney when the citizen successfully prosecutes a claim against the government.

Elimination of the causes of the need for legal
services in the consumer interest area. The government
should be encouraged to become much more active in
discovering and stopping fraudulent and illegal schemes
by persons against consumers, and by prosecuting those
guilty of such illegal acts. Even more important, the
government should establish an effective advertisement
campaign to warn citizens against various fraudulent
or questionable schemes or programs which are rather

common.

In my opinion the answer to the problem does not lie in
the area of imposition of arbitrary restrictions on
attorneys' fees. The most honest, conservative and
reasonable attorney has difficulty in estimating a
reasonable fee in advance of a particular transaction.
For example, the examination of one abstract by an
attorney might require one hour, while the examination
of another abstract of the same size might require
twenty hours. If an attorney is restricted to a nominal
fee for title examination, his choices include; (a) refu-
sing to handle this type of business; (b) attempting to
examine the abstract as rapidly as possible to keep from
losing too much money on the transaction, and thereby
running the risk of making an error in his examination;
or (c) examining the abstract in his normal, careful
manner, and sustaining a substantial loss on the trans-
action. Lawyers are human, and given these choices a
substantial number are likely to select alternatives
(a) or (b). What some people tend to overlook is the
fact that attorneys have high overheads which continue
regardless of whether or not the attorney is engaged
in productive legal services. Moreover, the attorney
has gone through a long and expensive educational
process before being licensed to practice law. For the
most part, attorneys are intelligent and industrious
men who would have succeeded in any other profession or
business they might have engaged in if they had not
elected to practice law. As long as we have any type

of society short of communism, the men who are lawyers
will have the ability to earn incomes at a professional
level. Even in a communistic country, such men would
rise to positions of power.

Page 3

What I am trying to say is that any attempt to solve the problem by placing arbitrary limits on attorneys' fees will either deny legal services to the person sought to be helped, or will cause the quality of such services to be drastically curtailed.

Sincerely yours,

James E. West

jk

OCIATION

THE COLORADO BAR ASSOCIATION

ANTHONY W. WILLIAMS, PRESIDENT BOX 338 GRAND JUNCTION, COLORADO 81501 PHONE (303) 242-6262

October 24, 1973

The Honorable John V. Tunney, Chairman,

Subcommittee on Representation of

Citizen Interests

United States Senate

Washington, D. C. 20510

Dear Senator Tunney:

Your letter addressed to Mr. Lawrence M. Wood has been forwarded to the undersigned for response. Mr. Wood was President of the Colorado Bar Association until October 13, 1973 at which time the undersigned assumed the office. We welcome the opportunity to express our views in regard to the several questions posed under the caption "Remarks of Senator John V. Tunney, Chairman... Due to the press of time, the contents of this letter must be considered only the comments of the undersigned since the governing body of the Colorado Bar Association will not have an opportunity to consider these several aspects in sufficient time to become part of the official record of the hearings.

CONSUMER ACCESS TO ATTORNEYS AND MINIMUM FEE SCHEDULES

The Colorado Bar Association has never had a minimum fee schedule although in the past several local associations within the state has made use thereof. To my knowledge, no effort has been made to enforce these minimum fee schedules on the theory that a violation thereof would be a breach of ethics by the attorney. Most of the locals which had such a schedule have now abolished the same. We are not confident that such schedules are a violation of any antitrust laws, but the lawyers in Colorado feel that the schedules are not sufficiently significant to argue the position.

We are aware that circumstances can be found in which minimum fees create some inequities. For this reason, if an inequity is created, a person should be able to find a lawyer who would not abide thereby. Your illustration of a fee of $500.00 to check title is unfamiliar in this area, and we do not know the particular problems that may be attendant to checking title in all of the various jurisdictions of the United States of America. Minimum fee schedules were

24-626 O-74 - 50

The Honorable John V. Tunney, Chairman

Page 2

October 24, 1973

never designed to require payment of more than a reasonable fee.

The problem of consumer access to attorneys is being pursued in almost every state. It is our opinion that no legislation should be considered relating to the question of minimum fee nor consumer access to attorneys. We think that any problems that do exist will be worked out by the attorneys and there are thousands of hours being spent throughout the nation working on methods of delivery of service in a manner so that all citizens can be served. In this connection, we would recommend support of legislation establishing an independent national legal services corporation who could then operate to provide legal services for the poor free from outside pressures, while preserving the traditional attorney-client relationship. Time should be permitted to determine whether delivery of service to individuals of moderate means will be effected by various prepaid legal service plans and other methods under consideration by the various State Bar Associations.

GOVERNMENT REGULATION AND SUBSIDY OF LEGAL FEES

We can see that there needs to be some revision in regard to current subsidies and limitations upon fees. Certainly the provision of a flat $10.00 fee for an attorney to secures a benefit for a veteran is absurd. Congress can best decide the areas in which subsidies should be offered in the quest for benefits available from various agencies of the United States and under particular acts such as the Black Lung Benefits Act of 1972.

Colorado has endorsed the concept of a public defender system and within this jurisdiction it has worked well. This system will always have to be supplemented by the privilege of a judge to appoint a private attorney when a conflict arises within the defender's system, and the private attorney should be compensated at an hourly rate. So far as we are advised, this combination system adequately provides representation for people accused of crime. We do not feel that this system should be expanded into other areas except that this statement should not be considered a contradiction to our support of an independent national legal services corporation.