Marking its 20th year, IAALS published a wide-ranging look at a decade of work to expand access to legal help — regulatory sandboxes, allied legal professionals, unbundled services, and the Above the Line Network — co-authored by Jessica Bednarz, IAALS Director of Legal Services and the Profession, and Courtroom5 CEO Sonja Ebron.
The piece makes an argument rarely heard inside the profession: every reform that widens the pool of legal helpers is bounded by how fast those pipelines can grow, while 76% of civil cases already involve at least one self-represented litigant. For people who will stand at the podium regardless, help that depends on securing a provider never arrives.
Strengthening the capability of people who represent themselves is therefore not a fallback position. It is a distinct pathway, and it is the only one whose reach is not limited by the number of professionals we can train. The profession has long treated self-representation as a problem to be eliminated rather than a reality to be equipped for, and that instinct has left millions of people outside the reach of every reform described here.
Jessica Bednarz and Sonja Ebron for IAALS
IAALS also shared the piece on LinkedIn.
