Increase Access to Justice
Affordable Legal Group is a nonprofit law firm whose mission is to expand access to legal services for the middle class. We do charge for our services, and we’ve adopted a pricing structure that is fair and affordable. As an organization we do not serve the market traditionally served by legal aid, nor are we a high priced firm courting clients at expensive luncheons.
We take the position that meaningful access to quality legal assistance is a fundamental component of maintaining the integrity of the legal system. For that reason, we take our mission a step further by eliminating the profit motive central to a typical law firm’s business model, and we consider our clients’ ability to pay when setting fees.
After extensive research and discussions with colleagues across the country, we’ve come to the conclusion that the type of model put forward here is the future of delivery of legal services. Expanding access to information and innovative technological developments have had a profound impact on the economy in general, and the legal industry is not immune.
How did we reach this conclusion?
The Legal Industry is Experiencing a Market Failure
A market failure is a situation where free markets fail to allocate resources efficiently. The market for legal services is experiencing market failure in several respects. The most notable of these is excess supply and excessive pricing.
The Supply of Attorneys is High
While it’s difficult to accurately identify the number of unemployed or underemployed attorneys, it’s estimated that the unemployment rate for new law school graduates sits at around 15.5% (compared to the current US unemployment rate of 5.5%). It has also been estimated that up to 35% of recent law graduates work in non- traditional legal jobs that do not require licensure.
Demand for Legal Services is High
Notwithstanding the excess supply of attorneys, it has been estimated that between 40% and 60% of people who interact with the legal system do so without the benefit of an attorney. If you compare the median hourly rate for an attorney’s services ($255 per hour) with the average hourly wage in Florida ($19.59 per hour), it’s no surprise that the average person cannot afford to pay an attorney.
Why Have Prices Not Adjusted?
The answer is neither simple nor straightforward. A contributing factor is the static nature of the legal profession. It is resistant to change. As such, it has inexplicably defied free market economics, and managed to sustain “false” equilibrium pricing by serving less than half of the market.
Another contributing factor is the profession’s failure to take any meaningful action to address the well documented lack of access to justice for a large segment of society. Studies and articles abound acknowledging this problem with impassioned calls to action, but in practice most attorneys and firms continue to operate in the traditional model.
From a moral perspective, this market failure has relegated the expression “liberty and justice for all” to nothing more than an empty phrase with a hollow ring for most Floridians.
At Affordable Legal Group we have recognized this disconnect.
- We believe that a $255 hourly rate is arbitrary, and as such does not reflect the actual value of the services the client is purchasing from the attorney.
- We also believe that the traditional model of delivering legal services has not adequately taken advantage of cost-saving technological advancements.
- We have created a pricing model that not only charges reasonable fees for the work performed on a given case, but we offer flexibility so our clients are able to control their legal fees and tailor their consumption of legal services to their individual needs.
- As a nonprofit, we have taken this approach a step further by considering our client’s ability to pay when setting the fee. We do this by charging on a sliding scale based on income and household size.