Justice System Reform Bill 2 2015

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

We could use some more clarification, particularly a definition for "legal defense projects".


Also, what was the criteria for selecting 75% in clause 5? It is still rather high no? What is the industry average for instance?

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Please tell me we are not going to be nationalizing the legal profession?


If we were to nationalize the legal profession, chances are with wages held down by the gov't like with teachers, the effect would be fewer of the top tier of college graduates going into the profession. With more coming from the bottom quadrants of college performance, that would mean a generalized decline in the overal skill of lawyers in general in the name of equality.

That said on the flip side, the lack of access to good representation is a threat to due process of law and equality before the law because it means varying outcomes based on the amount of wealth that one has.

That has to be some sort of happy medium where skill is rewarded and yet the poor and working class receive high quality representation as well.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I am not talking about just skimming off the top. One could argue if taking to the extent with the teaching profession, the overal impact is much greater and much more negative with regards to the quality of service provided by the overal profession.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

The point about quantifying is true, though needless to say there are many issues concerning whether or not proper representation is being given when the plea bargaining rate is so high.

The quality of the lawyer () and the caseload I would imagine are your biggest factors. This is why I made a point that discouraging the highest performers in college from going into the legal profession would be detrimental. That said we run into the problem of them going into the big flight law firms and churning out millions representing Micro$s**t and BoFA.

In education there have been programs to get high performers in college to go into teaching and then go to the worst performing schools. I think the same is needed this environment. A mechanism or a sub-program that rewards those high performers for going into law and then providing this kind of aid, and also another that encourages top flight attorneys to provide similar assistance so you can get experience on the ground as well.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

So what is the story with this now?

Does anyone have any recommendations on how best to strike a balance between access and quality when it comes to this field and particuarly as it relates to defending poorer clients who usually get bad or no representation at all?

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Lets see, I counted about four other bills that were langushing just as bad, so probably not. But indeed, we should proceed with all haste here.


I think our ultimate goal here is equality before the law, the underpinning of any democracy. Equal access to quality representation is a critical aspect of obtaining that.

That said I am not saying a tax credit is a bad incentive, I just think that on its own it will fall short in getting the legal representation where it is needed and you need a program to target high performing grads and experienced legal professionals in that direction. That program could be anywhere from a voluntary organization to that of say an organization that pays or subsidizes their fee to compenstate for the lower reimburesment in defense law, should they take these cases.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I think this is the best approach we are going to get for this matter and the overall structure looks rather solid to me. That said there is a euro symbol in clause 2b, that probably should be removed.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Dang Ferreners ftw.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Great amendment. There is no reason to limit this just to firms, it would advantage firms over solo attorneys in the market place, and some of individual attorneys are far superior in terms of providing this kind of aid then I would imagine firms are but I might be mistaken on that front.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Aye ftr