Community Legal Services

Are you dealing with malpractice, negligence, or breach of contract by your lawyer?
Know your rights and legal options against your attorney.

Lawyers can fail their clients in many ways. You may feel that you have been wronged by your lawyer, but do not know if you have a valid legal claim. You may want to take legal action, but do not know how to begin the process. Resolving disputes with a lawyer will require you to be well-informed and prepared to act. Among other things, Attorney Responsibilities and Client Rights will help you decide:

-if your complaint against your attorney will be accepted in court
-whether it is wise to pursue further action against your lawyer
-which legal strategy-litigation, arbitration, or mediation-is likely to bring you the most beneficial result

Armed with this information, you will be equipped to make informed decisions about steps you can take to assert your rights and make your claim.

This book explains:

-factors in proving malpractice
-legal definition of negligence
-direct damages, both financial and emotional
-dual representation and other conflicts of interest
-contractual obligations and breach of contract
-specific legal rights your attorney may have violated
-ineffective assistance of council claims
-recovering funds for financial misconduct and excessive fees
-attorney standards of conduct
-filing lawsuits against attorneys
-grievance procedures

Focusing on the Supreme Court as an integral part of the policy-making process, Susan Lawrence examines how a change in who has access to the Court, and the nature of the institutions that structure that access, has affected its agenda setting and doctrinal development. In her analysis of cases sponsored by the Legal Services Program (LSP) before the Supreme Court during the 1966 through 1974 terms, she explores the effect of this agency in creating a voice for the poor in the judicial policy-making process. The Court's response to cases presented by the LSP--as exemplified in its decisions to invalidate residency requirements for welfare recipients (Shapiro v. Thompson, 1969) but uphold maximum family grants (Dandridge v. Williams, 1970)--is described as emerging from a timely combination of new litigant claims, available legal bases, and judicial values and role conceptions, all of which were shaped by the political climate of the era. Lawrence convincingly argues that litigation before the Court is a powerful method of political participation for the disadvantaged.

Publisher: Rutgers University Press, 1982. First Edition. Hardcover.

Traces the development of legal aid in Canada from its conceptual beginnings to its final form in implemented policy.

Nearly 200 interviews with legal services lawyers and administrators, bar association officers, judges, and political officials form the basis for this book on the delivery of civil legal services to the poor. Beginning with a brief history of legal assistance programs, Kessler examines the operation of five local programs funded by the national Legal Services Corporation. The activities of poverty lawyers in urban, rural, and suburban settings are described and analyzed and the author offers an explanation for variables in service based on the constraints imposed by the interorganizational environment. The implications of his findings are examined from the perspective of existing theories of organizational behavior, the system's potential for effecting political and legal reform, and current political debates surrounding the future of the Legal Services Corporation.

In recent years, public interest law has shifted from an exclusive interest in the expansion of rights in such areas as consumer protection, environmental law, and discrimination to a parallel concern with seeking limits to freedoms and rights in both the public and private sector. In addition, public interest law firms have introduced diversified litigation strategies that were uncommon even a decade ago. This volume is the only comprehensive work to reflect these recent changes in the complexion and strategies of public interest litigation. Following an introduction describing the major shifts that have occurred in public advocacy, the authors present over 300 profiles of firms, groups, and organizations that litigate in behalf of the public interest and/or use the courts to achieve policy ends. Organizations surveyed include groups that focus on the protection of special interests, rights, or resources and those that offer legal aid in diverse areas, as well as legal organizations such as the American Bar Association. Among the areas of concern are the advancement of science in the public interest, conservation, consumer interests, abortion, constitutional and civil rights, and the rights of groups ranging from the elderly, women, children, and the handicapped to American Indians and other minorities. Additional groups and significant public interest cases are listed at the end of the book. An important source of information for those wishing more data on a particular group or the scope of today's public interest litigation, this book is recommended for legal, public, and academic library reference collections.