A Turf War of Professionals vs. Software

Lawyers, doctors and bankers may never go the way of coal shovelers who faded from the landscape like the steam engines they stoked, but technology is encroaching on the white-collar world, and for the first time some professionals are pushing back.

In a case that some say harks back to the Luddite protests of 1812, a committee of Texas attorneys is going to unusual lengths to ban self-help legal software products from their state by employing a statute that bars anyone--or apparently anything--from practicing law without a license.

One of the targeted companies, Parsons Technology Inc., has already been sued by the attorneys, and another, Berkeley-based Nolo Press Inc., is set to appear before the Texas Supreme Court today in a last-ditch attempt to avoid the same fate.

Whether the committee is out to protect consumers or its members’ legal fees depends on whom you ask. But its actions exemplify the tensions emerging as software and Internet services nibble away at territory that was once the exclusive domain of professionals.

Just this year, numerous Web sites raised eyebrows by offering prescriptions for Viagra without requiring patients to see a doctor. Securities regulators accustomed to chasing human scam artists began cracking down on software products and Web sites that seem to offer equally bad investment advice. And in Internet banking, a leading online mortgage service has found out just how hard it is for a virtual broker to get a license meant for humans.

“We have a stereotype that only blue-collar workers get automated,” said Phil Agre, an associate professor of information studies at UCLA. “But technology creates many opportunities to rearrange relationships between professionals and their clients. We are going to be grappling with these issues more and more.”

Consumers are likely to spend about $10 million this year on self-help legal software, part of a growing market for software and online services that do work once done by professionals, from accountants to architects to stockbrokers.

The trend has been fueled by technology itself. Computers are still a long way from approximating human intelligence. But gains in processing power and memory have led to programs capable of handling almost any intellectual problem that can be reduced to a series of steps and contingencies. That’s why a single version of the TurboTax software can handle millions of income tax scenarios.

The Internet not only expands the reach of these products, but enables more interactive, on-demand services ranging from medical diagnosis to stock trades.

No group of professionals is pushing back against this technology tide quite like the committee of Texas lawyers appointed to uphold the state’s Unauthorized Practice of Law statute. The statute was drafted decades ago to protect consumers from amateurs posing as lawyers. But in recent years, the committee seems to have concluded that today’s charlatans come dressed in shrink wrap.

Committee members were particularly chagrined by a product called Quicken Family Lawyer in which Arthur Miller--a noted Harvard law professor but not a licensed Texas attorney--pops up on the computer screen to help users with legal questions.

“See how elaborate that is,” said Mark Ticer, chairman of the Texas subcommittee responsible for the investigations. “Implicit legal advice cloaked in the robes of simplicity is very, very dangerous.”

So the committee sued Hiawatha, Iowa-based Parsons Technology, the maker of Quicken Family Lawyer, in an attempt to get the product banned from the state. Both sides have filed requests for summary judgment, and the trial is scheduled to start in federal court in December. Meanwhile, the committee has also been investigating publishers of other products.

‘Our Task Is to Protect the Public’

“I know we’re being cast as protectionist villains,” said Ticer, a Dallas insurance attorney. “But saving lawyers’ business is never a consideration. Our task is to protect the public.”

Another target of the committee is Nolo Press, which received a letter on Texas Supreme Court stationery last year saying it was suspected of engaging in “activities which constitute the unauthorized practice of law.”

The ensuing interstate squabble escalated until Nolo executives were asked to appear before the committee. Outraged and a bit unnerved, Nolo instead appealed straight to the Texas Supreme Court, which granted today’s hearing.

“I think it’s very clear they’re protecting their turf,” said Stephen Elias, associate publisher at Nolo.

Whatever the committee’s motives, technology does appear to pose a significant threat--at least at some levels of the legal profession. Even Nolo executives acknowledge software is no substitute for a legal advocate in the courtroom. But wills, trusts and other routine legal matters that software can handle are still the bread and butter of countless legal practices. And compared with standard legal fees, $30 for software can be a bargain.

“Downtown lawyers aren’t worried,” said Thomas Russell, a professor of law and history at the University of Texas at Austin. “This is a less elite segment of the bar worrying about being displaced.”

In fact, software publishers say things could get even tougher on the lower rungs of the legal ladder because the Internet will only expand software’s reach. Indeed, publishers such as Nolo are already facing competition from Web upstarts such as Legaldocs.

“Nolo is probably going to be in the fight of its life in two or three years,” Elias said. “And if I were a lawyer depending upon wills for a living, I would look for another living.”

For other software companies, the obstacles are often more subtle--and sometimes comic.

Consider Intuit Inc.’s dilemma when it set out to sell home loans over the Internet. The cyber-broker doesn’t have fingerprints, a Social Security number or a personal net worth, but was asked to supply all these things before it could become licensed in all 50 states. A handful of states even required the company to hire a local human representative.

Sometimes, the encroachment of technology raises serious ethical issues. Officials at the American Medical Assn. cringed this year when a number of Web sites popped up that not only offered to sell Viagra, but also to issue a prescription to almost anyone willing to fill out an electronic questionnaire.

“I’m very strongly in favor of technology that helps improve access to health care in underserved areas,” said Dr. Herman Abromowitz of Ohio, a member of the AMA’s board of trustees. “But to me, medications should never be prescribed without contact between a doctor and patient.”

That hasn’t stopped William Stallknecht, operator of San Antonio-based Pill Box Pharmacy, which is doing a booming Viagra business online at https://www.thepillbox.com. The site caught the attention of the Texas State Board of Pharmacy, as well as the state’s Board of Medical Examiners. But so far, neither agency has taken any disciplinary action.

Stallknecht said he knows that many members of the medical profession would like to shut him down. But, like the legal software publishers, he thinks it has nothing to do with protecting consumers.

“The bastions of medicine,” he said, “don’t want to give in to the possibility of losing market share to the Internet.”