Plato in the Gorgias asks two classic questions: Who are you? What do you do? We are experienced lawyers and members of the bar in good standing. We advocate on behalf of lawyers, and their clients. Covid-19 has made it clear to recent law school graduates what experience lawyers have known for a long time; that after three years of law school the bar exam is a rite of passage that may not be necessary for public protection.
We ask your help and request that you join us because the legal system is broken. In large part, this fractured system is under Supreme Court and State Supreme Court’s watch is the product of monopoly protecting mandatory bar association conduct. Law forms the basic operating system, the transactional platform of all economic and social activity. Clifford Winston, et. al, Trouble at the Bar, p. 2 (Brookings Institution Press. Kindle Edition 2020). The legal profession has been able to create a powerful self-aggrandizing position in the United States. Ibid. It has been estimated the law profession’s legal monopoly fails to serve 80 percent of the known market and it continues to build barriers for people to access legal services. Ibid. Twenty-seven percent of all civil cases filed in the United States District Court had at least one pro se party.[1] The following chart depicts the numbers of total appeals and the shocking percentage of pro se appeals in all U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals.[2]
Fiscal year | Total Appeals | Pro se appeals | Percentage pro se |
2020 | 48,190 | 23,546 | 48.9% |
2019 | 48,486 | 23,728 | 48.9% |
2018 | 49,276 | 24,680 | 50.1% |
2017 | 50,506 | 25,366 | 50.2% |
2016 | 60,357 | 31,609 | 52,4% |
2015 | 52,698 | 26,883 | 51.0% |
2010 | 55,991 | 27,208 | 48.6% |
2005 | 68,469 | 28,555 | 41.7% |
2000 | 54,694 | 24,935 | 45.6% |
1995 | 50,072 | 19,973 | 39.8% |
[1] Just the Facts: Trends in Pro Se Civil Litigation from 2000 to 2019 | United States Courts (uscourts.gov)
[2] https://www.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/data_tables/jff_2.4_0930.2020.pdf
According to some bar associations, all people are created equal and presumed innocent, except lawyers in good standing licensed in other 49 states. We don’t believe this fiction. We don’t believe a reasonable person would believe that lawyers as a class should countenance unequal treatment. A lawyer who will not seek to enforce and protect his or her own rights is not much of a lawyer. We seek to uphold the truth and the rule of law. We thus request your assistance in protecting and enforcing the right of all lawers and Americans to Equal Justice Under Law.