State Bar: Educating Public About the Law

In our last two columns, we discussed the extensive legal illiteracy across the state. We summarized the disappointing results of the legal literacy poll sponsored by the State Bar of California.

What can be done about this incredible and frustrating ignorance about fundamental legal principles? Reading Legal View is probably not enough.

The State Bar has developed an education program called “Get the Legal Facts of Life” to help respond to the need demonstrated by its public survey.

“It is imperative that the citizens of this state become familiar with their legal rights and obligations,” said State Bar President Charles S. Vogel.

“The State Bar, the public library system and local and specialty bars throughout California are combining their resources to educate our citizens about the law so they are better equipped to avoid legal problems and protect themselves when they arise.”

The program consists of several components, publication of consumer law pamphlets, a “lawyers in the library” series in more than 200 state libraries and a speakers’ bureau and public service announcement series, which this year will focus on the Bicentennial of the Bill of Rights.

The Bar publishes pamphlets in 15 subject areas, including wills, estate planning, buying or renting a house, small claims court, auto accidents, debt problems, divorce, child custody, lawyers’ bills, and hiring a lawyer.

Two of the pamphlets are translated into Spanish. Three pamphlets are also published in Chinese.

Send your request for the free pamphlets, along with a stamped, self-addressed, long envelope to State Bar Pamphlets, 555 Franklin St., San Francisco, Calif. 94102.

Last October, the lawyer-library program started as a pilot project in four communities. Today, the program has expanded to include 200 libraries throughout the state, all of which display the State Bar pamphlets and provide order forms.

Along with local bar associations and public libraries, the State Bar is sponsoring a pilot project called “Community Law Schools” in which volunteer lawyers conduct educational programs on consumer legal issues at libraries.

To reach immigrants and educate them about their legal rights, the Bar has joined with the Constitutional Rights Foundation in a new program designed to provide information to 500,000 Latino and 200,000 Asian immigrants.

For more information about any of these programs, contact Lisa Lacey at the State Bar’s Los Angeles office, 580-5358.

Confusion about legal rules is not the only problem, says Thomas Stindt, a Woodland Hills lawyer and frequent writer to Legal View. Most people simply don’t understand what it is to be a lawyer. It’s not the “Perry Mason” or “L.A. Law” character we see on television.

“It is not really a world of lunch meetings, business travel, constantly new and stimulating research or the office collegiality, socializing and courtroom drama depicted on television,” he writes.