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Page i
SECOND EDITION
with the
LEGAL SYSTEM
What’s Wrong
& How to Fix It
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
formerly Legal Breakdown:
40 Ways to Fix Our Legal
System

by Attorneys Ralph Warner & Stephen Elias
Edited by Mary Randolph & Barbara Kate Repa
class="bi x0 y1e w4 h9"
Page ii
YOUR RESPONSIBILITY WHEN USING A SELF-HELP LAW

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Fed up with the legal system? : what’s wrong and how to fix it / by
Nolo Press editors. 2nd national ed.
p. cm.
Rev. ed. of: Legal breakdown. 1st ed. 1990.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-87337-242-5
1. Justice, Administration of United States. 2. Law reform-
—United States. I. Nolo Press. II. Legal breakdown.
KF384.Z9F43 1994
347.73 dc20
[347.307] 94-
974
CIP
Page iii
Acknowledgments
The writing of this book, even more than most Nolo Press projects,
has been a collaborative effort. Every one of Nolo’s staff of about a
dozen legal writers and editors contributed. The result is an eclectic
and exciting mix of ideas, woven into 42 specific proposals to
reform our legal system.
We would especially like to thank Nolo editors Mary Randolph,
Barbara Kate Repa and Marcia Stewart, who made substantial
contributions to the second edition. Barbara Kate’s expertise on
healthcare issues and Marcia’s extensive knowledge of consumer
protection issues were crucial to the proposals on those subjects.
David Brown, Dennis Clifford, Lisa Goldoftas, Fred Horch,
Catherine Jermany, Robin Leonard, Tony Mancuso, Kate McGrath
and Albin Renauer also made creative contributions.
Page iv

#20.Make Competent Interpreters Available 86
#21.Help Non-Lawyers Use Law Libraries 89
Page vi
#22.Expand Small Claims Court Limits 93
#23.Privatize Civil Courts 98
#24.Do Away With Punitive Damages 102
#25.Allow People to Direct Their Own Medical Care 107
#26.Reform the Jury System 111
#27.Get a Consumer Voice in the IRS 115
#28.
End the Lawyer Monopoly: Bring Competition to the
Law Business
120
#29.Restrict Lawyers’ Licenses 126
#30.Make Traffic Court Fair 129
#31.Reform the Child Support System 132
#32.Compensate Medical Malpractice Victims 135
#33.Free Small Businesses From the Securities Laws 138
#34.
Protect Consumers From Unscrupulous,
Overcharging and Incompetent Lawyers
142
#35.Mediate Neighborhood Disputes 148
#36.Require Lawyer Impact Statements 152
#37.Create a National Idea Registry 156
#38.
Encourage Mediation and Other Alternatives to
Court
160
#39.Apply the First Amendment to Legal Information 164

who are likely to be hostile to non-lawyers.
Even worse is trying to explain legal procedures that would surely
have been done away with generations ago, save for the self-
interest of the legal profession. Probate—the procedure through
which a person’s property is distributed after death—is a good
example. Lawyers use their potent influence in state
Page 2
legislatures to keep this archaic system on the books, despite the
fact that even England, the country that invented it, did away with
probate in 1926. Probate is a favorite of lawyers for two reasons.
First, it provides fat attorney fees when someone dies. Second, at
the same time lawyers can sell people living trusts and other
expensive schemes to avoid probate.
Against this background of a legal system in crisis, Fed Up With the
Legal System sets out an agenda for legal reform and renewal. It
comprises a series of practical proposals for making the American
legal system more understandable, affordable and welcoming to all.
Some of our ideas—such as doing away with laws that require
lawyers to be involved in house sales in most states and simplifying
the divorce process—would save consumers billions of dollars.
Others, such as requiring laws to be written in plain English and
expanding consumer-friendly small claims court, seem so obviously
needed that it’s mind-boggling that they weren’t done years ago.
Some of the reforms we propose, such as eliminating probate,
have been advanced for many years. It’s fair to ask why, if they are
so sensible, weren’t they adopted long ago? The answer is as sad
as it is simple: proposals to make our legal system more
democratic have never been given a fair hearing. Instead, the legal
profession has used its considerable power to consistently oppose
all reforms—no matter how sensible—that threaten its monopoly

An Appeal to Lawyers
Nolo was founded by lawyers who believed that the democratic
promises of our legal system were not being honored. Average
Americans were being priced out of civil justice by high attorney
fees at the same time that the legal profession was creating more
barriers to self-representation. For the most part, this process was
not malicious—lawyers simply believed what they had been taught,
which was that anyone who represented herself had a fool for a
client.
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Two decades ago it seemed hopeless to ask lawyers—most of
whom didn’t even realize most Americans were being shut out of
the legal system—to help craft ways for people to gain direct
access to the law. Nolo simply set out to create practical tools—
plain English explanations of the law, forms and step-by-step
instructions—that non-lawyers needed to represent themselves. To
a considerable degree, this strategy has worked. Armed with self-
help legal tools from Nolo and other providers, millions of
consumers have acquired the power to solve their own legal
problems. These modern pioneers of self-representation have done
much to pry open our lawyers-only legal system. To take but one
example, in many states, more than half of divorcing couples don’t
hire a lawyer, something that would have been impossible even ten
years ago.
But despite great progress, the unfortunate truth is that even
determined self-helpers can change our legal system only slowly
and incrementally. Lawyers are still firmly in control of the process
by which laws are made in our legislatures, carried out by legal
bureaucrats and adjudicated in our courts. In short, fundamental
change along the lines discussed in this book can come quickly only

people would no longer find reason to tell all those mean lawyer
jokes.)
The prospect of lawyers leading the fight to make our laws
understandable, our legal procedures straightforward and our
courthouses usable by all may sound like a dream. It needn’t be.
Many wonderful lawyers have been at the forefront of reforming
many other areas of American life. From door-to-door sales, to
auto safety, to honest funeral practices, to cleaning up the
environment, hard-working, dedicated members of the legal
profession have led the way. One of these days, this same impulse
to make America a better place will be directed at our own
profession. And with this renewed dedication to making the law
accessible to all, lawyers will regain the public trust and respect
they once commanded.
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# 1
Take Simple Actions Out of Court
EACH DAY, TENS OF THOUSANDS OF “LEGAL” TASKS,
INCLUDING UNCONTESTED NAME CHANGES, ADOPTIONS,
DIVORCES AND PROBATES, ARE PRESENTED TO AMERICAN
JUDGES. THIS IS AS NEEDLESS AS IT IS COSTLY. COURTS
ARE A MISERABLE PLACE TO HANDLE ROUTINE PAPERWORK.
Courts are designed primarily to handle adversarial proceedings,
where lawyers argue for each side and a great deal of time and
money are spent concocting and debating legal theories. Over
centuries, elaborate rules governing every nuance of courtroom
procedure have evolved. As far more efficient arbitration and
private court alternatives have demonstrated, precious few of these

approving a stepparent adoption—especially when a social services
agency has already investigated and approved it—serves no useful
purpose.
Taking up court time for uncontested matters contributes
mightily to the courts’ increasingly huge backlog of contested
cases.
Courts scare people. Even though the paperwork necessary to