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45 Alta. L. Rev. 107 (2007-2008)
Imperfect Duty: Lawyers' Obligation to Foster Access to Justice

handle is hein.journals/alblr45 and id is 1251 raw text is: IMPERFECT DUTY 107 IMPERFECT DUTY: LAWYERS' OBLIGATION TO FOSTER ACCESS TO JUSTICE ALICE WOOLLEY* Access to justice is an integral component of the legal system. However, the question of upon whose shoulders the obligation of ensuring this access should fall has been widely debated. In particular, do lawyers, as part of the legal profession, have a special obligation to foster access to justice? In this article, the author explores the legitimacy of various arguments with respect to whether lawyers should carry this obligation to a greater extent than other members of society. The author begins by critiquing the traditional arguments related to imposing such an obligation on lawyers -for instance, the refined monopoly arguments. She then goes on to critically consider an alternative argument: that imperfections in the market for legal services justify the existence of a special obligation for lawyers. An examination of the limitations of this justification follows. Overall, the author concludes that while the arguments arisingfrom imperfections in the legal market offer the best justification for seeing lawyers have a special obligation to ensure access to justice, the claims from the argument are modest ones, and any policy response in furtherance ofsuch an obligation should be similarly modest. L 'acchs 6 lajustice est un kment intdgral du syst~me judiciaire. Cependant, la question de dkterminer sur quelles paules devrait reposer cette obligation a fait couler beaucoup d'encre. Tout particulijrement, les avocats n ont-ils pas, dans le cadre de leur profession, une obligation sp&iale defaciliter l'acchs i lajustice ? Dans cet article, l'auteure explore la legitimit de divers arguments q savoir si les avocats devraient ou non assumer cette obligation dans une plus grande mesure que les autres membres de la socitd. L 'auteure commence par faire la critique des arguments traditionnels relatifs i l'imposition de cette obligation aux avocats, par exemple, les observations sophistiqudes relatives au monopole. Elle examine ensuite un autre argument, notamment lefait que les imperfections sur le march des services juridiques justifient une obligation spiciale de la part des avocats. L'examen des restrictions de cette justification est donne ensuite. Dans l'ensemble, I'auteure conclut qu'alors que les arguments ddcoulant des imperfections du march juridiquepr sentent une meilleurejustification pour les avocats de veiller i l'accks i la justice, les revendications 6i cet egard sont modestes et toute politique en r~ponse i cette obligation devrait tre tout aussi modeste. TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION .................................. II. THE TRADITIONAL ARGUMENTS IN FAVOUR OF THE SPECIAL OBLIGATION OF LAWYERS .............. III. IMPERFECTIONS IN THE MARKET FOR LEGAL SERVICES . . . A. WHAT ARE THE IMPERFECTIONS.? ............... B. THE CONSEQUENCES OF MARKET IMPERFECTIONS - CONCEPTUAL ............................ C. THE CONSEQUENCES OF MARKET IMPERFECTIONS ........... 108 ........... 111 ........... 120 ........... 120 ........... 126 - EM PIRICAL ......................................... 128 POLICY RESPONSES TO LAWYERS' OBLIGATIONS ................... 138 CONCLUSION .............................................. 140 Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Calgary. The author would like to thank Jocelyn Stacey for her invaluable research assistance, particularly with respect to the compilation and analysis of Census data, David Luban and Brad Wendel for their comments and insightful engagement with the question of access to justice, Frances Woolley for a general education in economics and comments on an earlier draft, and Michael Trebilcock for his comments on an earlier draft. Any errors that remain are, of course, the responsibility of the author.

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