by Joann Gromowski

Created on: September 16, 2008   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

Should we create a law that requires every American to volunteer their services for ? (Fill in the blank). Should you be required to work freely for your employer or nonprofit group? I bet your answer is no. Then why should we expect lawyers to volunteer their services.

Seriously think about it. Would you want an attorney handling your case who didn't want to be there? Or one who knew nothing about the topic? Or one who didn't know the proper procedures of the court and screwed up your case because of it?

Most of the volunteering is in the court system. Are you going to require a real estate attorney to take a pro bono case involving a criminal? Are you going to require the real estate attorney to study month's worth of legal documents, court procedures, and statute just to get up to speed with the case because it's not an issue they are familiar with?

If you haven't noticed most attorneys are picking certain areas of the law to practice, because it takes many hours to keep up with the ever changing laws in those areas. There are few and few attorneys who will take on every legal issue out there. In addition, if they don't keep up with the legal areas they are most likely going to have a malpractice suit filed against them. So they tend to avoid legal issue they know nothing about.

Does that mean that you only want to require certain attorneys with knowledge in certain legal areas to be required pro bono work? That would start to deter more attorneys away from those legal areas.

You should know, especially when it is around this time of the year with the Presidential election, the United States is a democracy. A democracy is based on freedoms. Whether that freedom is political, social or economical it is still a democracy. Yes, a democracy of economical freedom. The freedom for a citizen to start any business with very few regulation or governmental interference in that business. By creating a law or requirement for attorney to be required to do pro bono work, the government would be interfering with every attorney economical freedom.

Right now, the Federal Government gives grants to organizations like Legal Action and Legal Aid to employee attorneys which provide legal services to the poor. Most State Bar Organizations have already set up groups of attorneys who volunteer for pro bono work. Let these organizations maintain the volunteer aspects of pro bono and not force any citizens to be required to give up their freedoms which our country is base on.

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