"Our typical customers vary," said Peter Schankman, PR Counsel for We the People
, a company that provides legal services to consumers. "They could be people who've never accessed the legal system before or people who know exactly what they want and don't have a need for an attorney." He recounted the tale of a customer who recently experienced a scare during her mammogram and quickly wanted to update her will. When her attorney remained continually unavailable, she turned to We the People and had her new will expedited to her in just hours for a much lesser cost.Schankman and Portman both believe their companies' products and services are long overdue. "There's a vast number of customers in this world who can't afford or for some reason don't have access to an attorney," Schankman stated, "and for years, there really was not a viable alternative to that."
Nolo Press' books proved quite valuable to Constantine Kalpaxis, who recently represented himself in his employment compensation dispute. "I read [the book] from cover to cover and then had confidence of how a lawsuit worked," Kalpaxis said. "Without the book, I would not have known where to start. I was able to file a complaint, give proper notice." Once educated in the general area of contract law, Kalpaxis performed extensive research at the law library, obtained and used the forms provided by New York's court system, and even did his own discovery, from answering interrogatories to taking depositions.
"The book gave me a foundation, and then I had to build the rest of the house," said Kalpaxis, depicting the amount of hard work involved in self-representation. "You have to be willing to do a little bit of work on your own," agreed Portman. "It does take a little time and some thought. You have to go through all the steps a lawyer would go through." All of Kalpaxis' hard work paid off. He settled for 80 percent of the damages he had asked for, without the need to pay attorney's fees.
While these services are proving to make the law more accessible, affordable, and understandable to the general public, it's important to note that they may not work for everyone. "It's great if you have a vanilla, chocolate, or strawberry case," said Schankman, "but not when the flavor is more complex." "An attorney's involvement may be essential in more complicated cases," said Portman, "like personal injury suits involving significant injury or wills with restrictions on how property may be used in the future." Legal products and services for consumers often cannot contain legal advice or answer specific questions relating to a particular situation—a task that's reserved for licensed attorneys.
And just what do attorneys think of these consumer-oriented products? "For a long time, there was a perception among lawyers that we were a disaster waiting to happen," Portman said, noting a complete turnaround. Today, Nolo sells books to law firms and continuing legal education organizations and even designs forms for use by state judicial councils. We the People prides itself on being one of the largest free referrers to lawyers around the world. "We are not attorneys, and we are happy to refer [consumers] to any attorney in their state," Schankman explained. "We are pro-consumer, not anti-lawyer."
And for those who can manage on their own, legal materials and services may save money and time. "If you have a valid case and you've been underserved, I would tell you to go ahead and do it," Kalpaxis advised.
