Roughly two-thirds of those eligible for legal aid in Massachusetts (read: people in extreme poverty) are turned away because there aren’t enough legal aid attorneys. Approximately 80 percent of all individuals in civil court represent themselves—in matters that will change their lives in drastic ways.
Whether our law schools have an ethical obligation to address the justice gap may strike some as a question far down in the pecking order of legal education. “Keep it real,” would go the argument.
