Green Light for Group Services

A start has been made toward providing legal services for the poor. The rich have always had the best lawyers. But what of the middle class, faced with fees that often place good legal help all but out of reach? An important answer could be group legal services--the services of a lawyer offered by an organization to members at a reduced rate or for free. Trouble is that such services violate the codes of ethics of the American Bar Association and the bars of most states.

The Supreme Court has now changed that. The case involved an Illinois local of the United Mine Workers, which had hired a lawyer to represent, without charge, members pressing workmen's compensation claims. The Illinois bar brought suit to end the practice. But, wrote Justice Hugo Black, "We hold that the freedom of speech, assembly and petition guaranteed by the First and 14th Amendments gives petitioner the right to hire attorneys to assist its members in the assertion of their legal rights." The 8-to-l decision seems to mean that almost any form of group legal services will now be acceptable, as long as the group refrains from telling the lawyer what to do.

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