Future
As the preparation of legal documents becomes more and more computerized, the function of non-attorney document preparers has become less dependent upon the preparer's individual skills, and more upon the quality of their software. By the same token, the continued increase of the availability of document software, legal aid websites, and the like, make it more and more likely that persons with some level of computer skills will be able to prepare and file legal documents without attorneys, and in fact, may not need even the limited assistance offered by LDAs, to prepare competent and quality legal documents. In fact, in the late 1990s, the Texas Bar Association, recognizing the threat that this trend represents to the pocketbooks of lawyers, was sued by Nolo Press, the country's leading publisher of self-help books and software, for alleging that Nolo was guilty of practicing law without a license. Although the Federal Circuit Court hearing the case initially ruled in favor of the State Bar, ultimately, they were unsuccessful, as the Texas Legislature passed a law which clearly established that selling books and software on legal subjects could not be considered practicing law. The preceding sentence exemplifies why the Texas Bar Association's concern with "quality legal documents" prepared by non-attorneys extends beyond the mere "threat that this trend represents of the pocketbooks of lawyers," since the above mentioned law - Tex. Gov't. Ann. ยง 81.101 provides:
At the very least, it appears that the statute exempts only such books and software which "clearly and conspicuously state that the products are not a substitute for the advice of an attorney." Thus, under certain facts and circumstances, it appears that such software and/or books could still constitute the unauthorized practice of law absent a disclaimer as required by the statute. For a discussion of the specific facts that led a federal court to conclude that the developer, publisher, and marketer of Quicken Family Lawyer had engaged in the unauthorized practice of law in Texas (prior to enactment of section C, above), the reader is referred to Unauthorized Practice of Law Committee v. Parsons, 1999 WL 47235 (N.D. Tex. 1999)
In New York, "quality" legal documents are available online through the state court system.
Read more about this topic: Legal Document Assistant
Famous quotes containing the word future:
“The difference between Pound and Whitman is not between the democrat who in deep distress could look hopefully toward the future and the fascist madly in love with the past. It is that between the woodsman and the woodcarver. It is that between the mystic harking back to his vision and the artist whose first allegiance is to his craft, and so to the reality it presents.”
—Babette Deutsch (1895–1982)
“Do not discourage your children from hoarding, if they have a taste to it; whoever lays up his penny rather than part with it for a cake, at least is not the slave of gross appetite; and shows besides a preference always to be esteemed, of the future to the present moment.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
“We live in an age when to be young and to be indifferent can be no longer synonymous. We must prepare for the coming hour. The claims of the Future are represented by suffering millions; and the Youth of a Nation are the trustees of Posterity.”
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881)