So, I am now the Vice-President of our county’s Legal Aid Board of Directors. Glamorous, I know. But it’s a valuable organization — Tippecanoe County’s in particular, but also legal services for poorer people generally. As a debt collector, this kind of goes against my natural grain — it’s usually easier for me and my client when the debtor is unrepresented. But for society as a whole, it’s better when everybody gets fair representation. This isn’t just me being a dirty, commie hippie. The thing about the rule of law is that the masses have to buy into it for the system to work. I think Iraq is giving us a case study on what happens when you pass a bunch of laws that nobody feels compelled to obey. Force only goes so far. The system can only use a certain percentage of its available energy forcing compliance before the whole thing breaks down.
The poor don’t get nearly the quality of legal representation as do the rich. The legal system does not treat everybody equally. But, overall, the American legal system gets the job done. Mostly, it successfully assists the government in maintaining its monopoly on force and keeps us from resolving our differences through violence. And, institutions like legal aid are the nets that keep too many of the very poor from slipping through the cracks. If you truly do not have resources and if your problems are significant enough, usually you can get a lawyer to help you navigate through the legal system and keep the railroading to a minimum. And, my hat is off to the lawyers who handle these cases. They are not richly rewarded. The cases are often some of the most intractable — those cases where there is no way to make the situation “good.” All you can hope for, really, is to make the situation less bad. A lot of times we’re talking about home lives that are well and truly fubar, usually with innocent kids in the middle.
I’ll just close with a little pitch. If you have a few bucks to spare, you could do worse than to throw some of them the way of your local legal aid organization.
Update Not directly related, but it seemed relevant. Marked Hoosier posts on Indiana being #1 in volunteering. “The study, released this week by the corporation for national and community service indicates that in 2006, Indiana’s volunteers contributed more than four billion dollars to charities. That puts Indiana far ahead of other states.”
Doug, my hat’s off to you for undertaking this task. He who has the gold certainly does make the rules, as O.J. definitely taught us and organizations like Legal Aid to their best in trying to make an impact.
Thanks. My role is relatively minor, but I’m happy to do what I can.
My parents could never afford a lawyer and growing up I remember a couple times when ‘someone helped them’ as they put it. I don’t remember circumstances,but I do remember how relieved they were.
Thanks for the link! :)