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.
As BigLaw has morphed from small groups
of attorneys
operating in a single location to global enterprises with
thousands of professionals and staff, the notion
of what it means to be a
law firm has changed considerably.