Justice, Pro Bono

Texas Allows Out-Of-State Lawyers To Help, Kind Of Highlighting The Stupidity Of State Bar Restrictions

Lawyers who are ready to help don't need friction.

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(Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Given the ongoing crisis in Texas, the Texas Supreme Court will allow out-of-state lawyers to practice, pro bono, in Texas for six months to help victims of Hurricane Harvey.

How can lawyers help in a disaster? Well, after people are rescued and the waters recede, they’re going to have insurance claims. But the way insurance works in America is: you pay them in case something bad happens –> something bad happens –> they try mightily not to help you.

So that’s when you call a lawyer. You need a trained professional to force the insurance companies to honor the commitments you’ve spent years paying for. Wonderful system we’ve got here.

Legal aid can use the help. From the ABA Journal:

Saundra Brown, the manager of the disaster response unit at Lone Star Legal Aid, says the need for legal assistance “is going to be huge,” Law.com (sub. req.) reports. Brown spoke with the ABA Journal about her group’s work.

Many lawyers with Lone Star Legal Aid are working remotely, while many senior managers are working in Texarkana. The group’s headquarters in Houston was damaged on Monday in an apparent explosion and fire.

Lawyers will be needed for disaster appeals with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, to help people secure temporary housing, to get money for home repairs, and to deal with insurance claims, Brown told the ABA Journal.

Out of state lawyers can help with the FEMA appeals, which are administrative in nature, Brown said. The group’s website is here. Additional help for legal aid and volunteer lawyers responding to disaster is at the National Disaster Legal Aid Resource Center.

According to reports, lawyers from around the country are willing to help these people get what’s owed to them, for free. It really makes you feel good about the legal profession.

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While we’re casting about for silver linings, might this kind of assistance lead us down a path where state bars more generally loosen out-of-state prohibitions on lawyers willing to work pro bono? I mean, I get the economics of out-of-state restrictions. This State’s bar can’t have That State’s lawyers flying in and scooping up all the legal work. It’s stupid and leads to economic inefficiencies, but I get the reasons for it.

But surely, when it comes to pro bono work, why should it still matter what state you are barred in? Why should we make people willing to help for free endure the friction of finding “local counsel” and all that? I don’t mean to sound like Jim Harbaugh, but Legal Aid should be a backbone of our social safety net, and limiting that service based on state bar requirements doesn’t seem to be helping anybody.

Just a thought. If we can see the value of out-of-state pro bono when the crisis is a flood, maybe we can see the value of out-of-state pro bono when the crisis is “I live in Lubbock, on purpose.”

Lawyers licensed outside Texas can provide help to Harvey victims, Texas high court order says [ABA Journal]

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Elie Mystal is an editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.

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