metro Atlanta, or of the ten million people now living in our
state? Our collective experience and Justice Thompson’s
report answer that question. Based on the number of calls I
get in my own office from people who cannot afford counsel,
I believe I could spend all my time providing free services.
That would be almost as hard as…as....wait for it…being a
bar president--but that is a subject for another column.
fundamental right of citizenship. Once a consensus on that
idea forms, and it is forming rapidly, the status quo will yield.
Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it’s ragin'
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'2.
How can we do better? Providing access to justice to me is
the greatest challenge the legal profession faces. I suggest
that in order to provide meaningful access for all our citizens
we have to come up with a better way to finance basic legal
services. Somehow the cost has to be spread out among
more people either through some kind of insurance or taxation
or some combination of both. At this point I expect some
of you have recoiled in horror at my suggestion and have
uttered the dreaded S word 1 as an expletive. Yet we cannot
just sit back and let the current situation continue. If we do
not devise a solution, someone or something will devise one
for us. One need only look to our brethren in the medical
profession to see that change is c