The Lombardi Law Firm Blog

If there are too many lawyers why can't I find a lawyer to represent me?

Let’s start off with the public’s perception firmly in our mind about lawyers.

PREMISE #1: The public’s perception is there are too many lawyers.

PREMSIE #2: Lawyers are all making too much money.

Got it; is it firmly embedded in your conscience? Good. Keep it there and let’s examine the reality.

WITH ALL DUE RESPECT YOUR HONORS

The judicial system is short on funding and self-help legal services are growing in both need and availability. Justice Ternus presented the Iowa Judicial Branch Budget Forecast for fiscal year 2009 to 20010 back in February 2009. The State of Iowa had a $779 million budget “gap”. A gap is another way of saying they are spending too much and the number is the amount. The Iowa Judicial branch budget is less than 3% of the entire state budget. Education and health care take up the bulk of the state budget. Ninety-five percent of the judicial branch budget is with personnel costs. With mortgage foreclosures, debt collections, crime, child abuse, substance abuse and domestic violence cases increasing in these tough economic times the need for more rather than less judicial effectiveness seems to make a lot of sense. But the Courts are adjusting their numbers by decreasing costs in FY 2009 by $3.8 million or 2.5% down to an operating budget of $148.6 million. In 2010 they will do it again by 6.5%.

Since the year 2000 the court systems workforce in Iowa has shrunk by 7%. We are ending up with a part-time court system; one that closes for entire days or furloughs its workers to save money.

In response to lay-offs and the general state of the economy the judges are seeing more and more people representing themselves in matters where they clearly need a lawyer’s assistance. The Iowa courts have created an entire section on it’s website with a do-it-yourself forms section, sort of like a judicial Home Depot if you will.

So why it is if there are too many lawyers in America that all these people can’t find lawyers to help them with their legal problems?

From my vantage point the problem is one of perception and is being exacerbated by tort reform, low or nonexistent verdicts and making claims more expensive and time consuming with legislative hurdles that produce nothing but delay. Delay of course plays right into the hands of the campaign contributors that control the legislative process: the insurance industry. Delay is the way of promoting the float. Clearly the insurance industry controls the legislature. Through tort reform they’ve made making money at the practice of law so difficult that most lawyers are too busy just trying to pay for the overhead to have time to assist with offering free or low cost legal services. We used to be able to do more in providing low or no-cost legal services, but those days are long gone. Now we toil daily just to pay the overhead and keep our staff employed.

WHAT SHOULD THE COURT BE LEARNING FROM THIS?

When running a law practice it makes no sense to swamp your staff with work that will not earn a fee and risk losing them and increasing the lawyers risk of making a mistake and having it affect his/her malpractice rates. You can’t run a state-wide legal system with pauper lawyers. Keep in mind that's why many of you judges applied for a judgeship. You wanted away from the growing overhead "gap" law firms were experiencing.

WHAT ISN’T THE GENERAL PUBLIC UNDERSTANDING – UNREALISTICLY NEGATIVE ATTITUDES MAKE WORKING FOR YOU UNATTRACTIVELY EXPENSIVE - YOU CAN'T CALL ALL LAWYERS GREEDY AND THEN ASK THE GOOD ONES TO WORK FOR FREE - WE DO GET INSULTED YOU KNOW.

Sure there are the occasional mega-verdicts that when reported only reaffirm a perception that all lawyers are rich and “making a killing”. The truth is for what we have invested in education, office equipment, staff and training lawyers aren’t making enough for what it costs to stay in business. This is truer in the rural parts of our country than in the urban areas. If the opposite were true why are so many lawyers applying for judgeships when they open up?

U.S. Department of Labor Wage Statistics

Lawyers

The public and the courts can’t have it both ways; you can’t ask lawyers who are struggling to stay afloat financially, to take time away from clients that pay a fee and to do free legal work for unappreciative clients and judges. Simply put you can’t support free legal services with pauper lawyers. Just as the judges aren’t able to run a court system neither are lawyers able to run profitable law offices.

YOU SHOT YOURSELF IN THE FOOT

You bought into tort reform and these rule changes that cause delay and do nothing to promote a fair resolution; and now you have a jury system that has been polluted by insurance propaganda and so you’ve made your bed and you have to sleep in it.

And what is my advice to young aspiring lawyers? Be a plumber.

US DEPARTMENT OF LABOR WAGE INFORMATION FOR LAWYERS

For some general sense, here is some data from the U.S. Department of Labor:

In 2002, the median annual earnings of all lawyers was $90,290. The middle half of the occupation earned between $61,060 and $136,810. The lowest paid 10 percent earned less than $44,490; at least 10 percent earned more than $145,600. Median annual earnings in the industries employing the largest numbers of lawyers in 2002 are given in the following tabulation:

·         Management of companies and enterprises $131,970

·         Federal government $98,790

·         Legal services $93,970

·         Local government $69,710

·         State government $67,910

Median salaries of lawyers 6 months after graduation from law school in 2001 varied by type of work, as indicated here:

All graduates: $60,000

Private practice: $90,000

Business/industry: $60,000

Judicial clerkship and government: $40,300

Academe: $40,000

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