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![handle is hein.baecl/buletin0022 and id is 1 raw text is: NON-PROFIT
ORGANIZATION
U. S. POSTAGE
PAID]G
Buffalo, N.Y.
Permit No. 416
Monthly Publication of the Bar Association of Erie County
vol. 23-No. I
BUFFALO,, N.Y.
SEPTEMBER, 1981
PrePai Leal ervcesOfficesDiprectors C
Pre-. dLglS
For .-m.an y yerthrhabenag ea
certainsegm-entsothAmrcnp ulin
legal services aegnrlyurpeetd
the Ame ric an a soianbg n stdi
~~V. ~~~~~ Services to fill ti a.Pe A eia
sevenypercetofteA e anp plrt
Am-ericans, cant for h cs o eg
qulfy for govermnsuprelgasrv
1 recognition that
who are in ne--ed of
s far bac:L-k as 1966
-i Pre-Paid Legal:
ar. e stmtsha
;otal of 140 maillion
r.vices and do not
ce programs.
Left to Rig--ht - Franiieis J. Offermann, Jr., Vice President P eter .1 asen, Uan iv-I..oie,
Rlichard 3. Lippes, President Myron M. Siegel, Hilary P. Bradford, Ba rbara Ellen
Handschu and Treasurer Jack L. Getman. (Scetr ilimD.Hrintn
Directors Richard T. Sullivan and James J. Tanous were not available when photo
was taken recently in Bar Head q uarters).
00President's Letter
Activity at Bar Headquarters, has
continued at a fatirly rapDid pace throughout
the lazy, hazy days of s ummner. Minimal let-
uip in the wt,,ork of the various commnittees,,,
has resulted in virtually ev,ery committee
being- well into its year's projects.
Loo-)king backward for just a m-oment, -
the Nationlal C onfere-nce 0of BPar Presidents
m-et in New, Orleans early in Aiqgust in
conjunction with tUhe AB-A s umme1irn
mi-eeting. During the Conference m-eeting,
th-e proposed final draft of th-e proposed
Mlodel Rules of Professional Conduct was
p.-resen.,ted by the drafting panel to the
Confer'ence attendtees. Although some
revisionls have beeni made since the earlier
draft, thtere rem.,ains
a n umiber of contro-
v;ersial provisions,
am~ong th-em, pro-
vsosWhich would
sinfcntly af fect
t-he lawye-c(-lient
p)ro po0sed final
draft warranits
seriou s atten-ition
by aI lw y er sTe
AB-A House of
Delegates wviill act
onI the proposedl
fal drft during
its 182summer
meig.Eailer
action, however,
Mvaivyann S. Freedman will be tatken by the
NYSBA House of
Delegates; perhaps Cas- early as its fall
mneeting- in November. While the Erie
County Bar Assoc iftton has n o delegates to
the ABA, we dJo haIve delega-tes to the State
Ba r- We have obtained extra copies of the
proposed code which are a-vailable for your
reiw at Bar H-ea dquarters. I urge you to
fam rn-iliar ize yourselves with thiepooa
and pass on your comiments to any m-emnber
of our Board so that we may appropriately
g-uide our delegates.
Most of you hiave heard firomi friends
and collleague s (on the Boa,-rd tha~at the
amun o wrkof the Associatio(n i,s
staggering. True. Much of it, unfortu nately,
is unkno-wn to many of our1 m11embers and,
needless to say, to the IF Y community. With
Panel Recommends
The Board of Directors of
the ErIie Co-.,unty Bar Associa-
tion ha,-s approved a recom-,
mendation of the FamilyLa
Commnittee which has agre ed
unanim-ously that the follow-
inig be miade a st,andard 'of
pra-ctice in -matrim~onlial case_ s:
the assistance of the Erie County Ba,,r
Assocication's Auxiliary and his
Membership Committee, Peter Cosiita hnas
tund(ertaken the task o~f compiling 1a
irtectoryv of bar- services to.- be inserted into
a fuiture _issue of the BarU Bulletintl. I am
virtually certain that you, will. find its
Content quite imipressive a hat with
somie certainty becau~ise duringthpat1
mionths I have. had the opportunity to
compare our Associa: tion with ot.,hers
throlughout the state and country at
mieetings such as those mentioned aov.I
hiave beco-m*i-e very m-uch awrare, pleasan.Itly
so, that the legal community in Erie Couinty
is second to none. We cain, in good
consciencee be very proud of our
acmlishments, our servicesan ou
progranis. That is -not to say thiatI
elverything that can or should be done hica.s
been done. One area in wich we are
particularly deficient is our relationsh!ip to'
the legrislative process.
Amiong my priorities fo.-r the year is to
estabissh effecti~ve line's ofcomnatn
between the bar and our local and state
legrislc-atures., There is no gyroup that I ecan
thj.ik of which deals mr with the
leg-islative product than lwes As a
result, we occtupy a unique position both in
term~s of evaluLiating legislation adi~n
termis of the ability to idlentify fareas which
require legislative attention. Thlerefore, it
seems not only desirabl e but obligatory
that we seek a more effective participationl.
in the legislative process. A great deal of
thougxht went into selection of the
Legi;,slation Commi-ittee al-nd I am npleased ito
report that we have aln impressive axray of
talented (and 1acco-mplishied memnbers who
h11ave acc(:epted I the chialleng4e individually
and collec(:tively undr~ler the able leadershp
of Gene Pigo)rtt. I a confident that w It hin1 a9
relatively short timne we will hnave
dev--elo-pedT and be able- to n-raintain an
effective, sophisticated approach to the
labyrlinth of the legislative process.
I look forward to s-_eei-ng nma_-ny of you at
Professor Siegel's Update on the CPLR'
Septem-ber 26th.-
Standar d:O-rder in Mtionial Cases
Opposing attorneys
are to be g)iven no-tice of
th-F'e conitents of a proposed
order prior to its being
suibmitted to the judge fo.r
sig-nature and shall be -
gi-ven suffitcienat time to
respond .as to' hisi her
Grace Mvarie AngeCi
mittee Chairrman, szzaid 'thec
recomm.rendation wllbe
Submitted to the Adm-inistra-
tive Judzge.
In New York State, then
Attorney General Louis
L_.eflkowitz addressed thi's
probleni when hie indicated that
(It is a- sadnand ironic fact of
our society today that large
segments of the mniddle incomkre
Classcnnt afodnecessary
legral services to-- protect their
basic rights and privileges
...(and that).. the average C
moderate wage earner..,too
often find s himrnself in a posJIionl
where his incomne exeeds,
maxi,,imum levels -wich would
entitle him to free legal aid but
is insufficient for him to retain
privcate counsel. to represent
him. Pre-P aid and Group
Legal Services can serve this
need.
On the hationral level, the
need for legal servi1ces has been
so great that the growth of Pre-
Paid and Grouip Legal Services
programs has been pheno-
menal hile heeweonly
approximately three hundred
Group an-d Pre 1Paid Legal
Services programns in 1969,
today the number of programr's
are estimated to be in the
th ou sa-n ds.
Pre-paid progrram',s repre-
sent both an opportunity to
fulfill one of the highest dutties
of our profession.t to assure that
every Amt-ericcan receive
affordable legal services and a
threat in that many individuals
Who would oth-erwise be
obtfaining leg-al services from
their private sole practitioners,
now,-k, have ine':-xpenrsive leg al
seI.rvices afforded to tlhema
th1ro-;ugh a closed panel Pre-
Paid Leg-al Services plain.
To enhlfance th~e opportunity
for- the individual consumer,
anc4 to allevilate the threat to the
profAession, your Bar Associa-
tion has been working on an
open panel legalU services plan.
individuals or groups create a-
pool of mnoney by paying a fee to,
the plcan. Thereafter, the.
individual who has paid said
fee or premium, can 'obtain
necessry legal services ro
an attorney of his choice who
participa-Ctes in the plan. The
legal fees are paid from the
fund that is created. Since it is
expected that not everyone in
aniy given yea r wilnedtus
the maximum amount of legal
benefits provided, the Pre-Paid
program spreads the cost of
legal services, over the 1lrge
numnber in the plan, thereby
protecting thle individual with
Jlegal problems from11 high legal
fees and' encouraging the
utilization of preventative
legal services.
Many of you remembe r the
specifics of our legal service
plan as published in a prior
issue of the Bar Bulletin.
Generally, for payment of a
nomiinaLl yearly fee, individu als
can-receive ai wide range of
legal services for himself aRnd
his family. While there are
somne minor exceptions to the
type of legal services covered
by the plan, for example,
contingency fee type cases,
generally speaking the plan
offers near .ly every jkind of
leg-ral service which an
individual might expect to
need.
WVV ley t . u
will be attractive to both7 the
plublic and the Erie County Bar.
Through our Pre-Paid Legal
Services plan, every lawyer in
Erie. County will hkave the
opprtuity to participate in
this new legal services
delivery m-,echanism. More-
over, onc.e the inividual or-
grouip Ihas -paid their year1-ly fee,
'they no longer have to worry
abo.,ut legal fees, each time they
seek legal cadvice. Suich a
programIltake away the
cost im-rpedimient to uising ltegal
services, thus encouraging the
gceneral1 public to use samne on a
preventive basis, and to
general,.ly educate the public to
benefits derived fromi legal
advice.
The Corporation plans to
hold a noon day meeting at City
Couirt on Wednesday, October.
21, 1981 to explain our plan in
greater detail and to answer
questions and receive sug-
T'he Thomas More Guild
(former-ly- Catholic Lawyers
Guiild) will have its aunnu~al
Red Mass at 12:10 P.M.
Wednesday, Septembe r 6, in St.
Joseph's Cathedral. Gues-,,,t
speaker at the luncheon in t14hef
Staq'tlei Hotel after the Mva-,s
w iI Ib e thIIe Re v. Ja c ob Le'- dwon- 1.
-Mary Dee Martoche, 300 Statler
HotelBil-ding, Buffialo, N.Y.
14202 (856-1010) is 'handling
reservations.
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