Even then, there are a couple
of big «ifs» — if accountants and lenders also buy into using the site in
sufficient numbers and if those accountants and lenders are ones with whom the
lawyers share some community
of interest, be it through geography or industry.
Both solutions will occur because the power
of the news media and
of the internet, interacting, will quickly make widely known these types
of information, the cumulative effect
of which will force governments and the courts to act: (1) the situations
of the thousands
of people whose lives have been ruined because they could not obtain the help
of a
lawyer; (2) the statistics as to the increasing percentages
of litigants who are unrepresented and clogging the courts, causing judges to provide more public warnings; (3) the large fees that some
lawyers charge; (4) increasing
numbers of people being denied Legal Aid and court - appointed
lawyers; (5) the many years that law societies have been unsuccessful in coping with this problem which continues to grow worse; (6) people prosecuted for «the unauthorized practice
of law» because they tried to help others desperately in need
of a
lawyer whom they couldn't afford to hire; (7) that there is no truly effective advertising creating competition among law firms that could cause them to lower their fees; (8) that law societies are too comfortably protected by their monopoly over the provision
of legal services, which is why they might block the expansion
of the paralegal profession, and haven't effectively innovated with electronic technology and new infrastructure so as to be able to solve this problem; (9) that when members
of the public access the law society website they don't see any reference to the problem that can assure them that something effective is being done and, (10) in order for the rule
of law, the Canadian Charter
of Rights and Freedoms, and the whole
of Canada's constitution be able to operate effectively and command
sufficient respect, the majority
of the population must be able to obtain a
lawyer at reasonable cost.
Alice Woolley has already considered this question elsewhere and has pointed out that the fact that the Canadian legal profession is provincially regulated gives rise to serious cost and practical issues: a
number of provinces and territories simply do not seem to have
sufficient lawyer populations to justify putting an entirely new regulatory body into place to operate alongside the courts and the law societies.
According to a report published by Wall Street Journal, Jay Clayton the chairman
of SEC stated that, «I have yet to see an ICO that doesn't have a
sufficient number of hallmarks
of a security,» while addressing an exclusive group
of lawyers.