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THE LEGAL BAR DEFENDS ITS
MONOPOLY
Some observers say the legal profession is guilty of some of
the grossest anti-competitive practices in the marketplace today
-- and some of them are exactly the same faults plaintiffs'
attorneys are alleging Microsoft is guilty of. So far, attorneys
have filed more than 140 private antitrust suits against the software
maker -- hoping, critics say, to cash in on the government's case.
But lawyers do everything they can to keep their own
competitors at bay.
* Earlier this month, the New York State
Bar Association
called for a clearer
definition of what constitutes the
"practice of law" and
for stepped up efforts to prosecute
non-lawyers -- such as
accountants and financial planners
-- it believes are crossing the
line.
* In the 1960s, the same group
tried unsuccessfully to
knock legal self-help books off
the shelves -- claiming
their authors were effectively
practicing law without a
license.
* Since then, state bars across the
country have succeeded
in shutting down low-cost
alternative providers of legal
advice.
* In one notorious case, a woman who
helped poor clients
in failed relationships obtain divorces was actually thrown
in jail -- at the behest of the
state bar -- for giving
legal advice without a license.
While the legal profession protests that it is only trying to
protect the public from incompetents, the fact is that only an
estimated 11 percent of unauthorized practice suits involve any
allegation that customers were actually harmed. The remaining cases
are largely protectionist efforts to eliminate competition, critics
charge.
Source: Robert Kry (Institute for Justice),
"Real Monopolists:
Microsoft Pales Compared With Lawyers' Groups,"
Investor's Business Daily, June 9, 2000.
Received by JAIL
from Harsha Sankar
J.A.I.L. (Judicial
Accountability Initiative Law)
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