We Have Scientific Proof That Lawyers Are Incredibly Useful

Hard data shows lawyers can improve client results 12-fold.

Lawyers generally get a bad rap out there. Some of it is deserved to the extent the profession is afflicted with more than a few self-entitled douchebags who wave around their third-tier law degree as if they’ve split the atom. It’s hard to defend those people from the slings and arrows of dumb beat poetry.

The value a competent attorney brings to bear in service of their client is considerable. Perhaps the legal system shouldn’t be needlessly complex, but barring a comprehensive reform of the law, attorneys remain a client’s personal Virgil, guiding them through the hellscape of the law. Yet lawyers rarely have the stats to back up their value, and talk is cheap even at $1,200/hour.

Now we have some real data on the value of an attorney. In the face of ICE stepping up its efforts to deport immigrants and legal residents on all manner of pretenses, New York broke with the standard protocol and guaranteed legal representation for everyone brought before an immigration tribunal. The results should warm the heart of any lawyer doubting their self-worth:

According to a study released Thursday by the Vera Institute for Justice (which is now helping fund the representation efforts in the other cities, under the auspices of the Safe Cities Network), the results were stunning. With guaranteed legal representation, up to 12 times as many immigrants have been able to win their cases: either able to get legal relief from deportation or at least able to persuade ICE to drop the attempt to deport them this time.

That’s a significant increase. As Dara Lind notes at Vox, these numbers could be gamechangers in the immigration debate. With the Department of Justice and states like Texas railing against “sanctuary cities,” it could be that the most effective defense of a city’s residents is found at the adjudication stage. The argument that local law enforcement should enforce the law — even through forced deputization — has a certain simplistic appeal. Arguing that people in court don’t deserve a lawyer is a harder hill to climb. Immigration proceedings may not constitutionally require an appointed attorney, but the vague idea that people arrested and hauled into court have a right to an attorney has general, if begrudging, acceptance.

So instead of fighting whether or not the feds can order cops to bust up the local Motel 6, cities can just hire some lawyers.

This is the lie of every talking head that praises building a wall but adds, with all faux sincerity, that they have “no problem with legal immigrants.” Almost half of the people shuttled through assembly line deportation hearings actually fit within legal immigration protections, but the complexity of the system — not to mention language barriers — make them victims of the bureaucracy.

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If that projection is correct, NYIFUP cases result in immigrant victories 48 percent of the time. As Oren Root, director of the Vera Institute’s Center for Immigration and Justice, puts it, that means that of every 12 immigrants who are winning at Varick Street right now, 11 would have been deported without a lawyer.

That finding challenges a widely held assumption about immigration court: that most immigrants who go through it don’t qualify for the types of protection that Congress has laid out for particularly compelling cases. The Vera finding implies that, in fact, many immigrants do deserve relief as Congress and the executive branch have established it — but that hundreds of thousands of them have been deported without getting the chance to pursue those claims.

New York’s program has inspired 12 more cities to adopt the program. It’s put up or shut up time for the Department of Justice — if they’re really committed to proving some undocumented migrant is in violation of the law, then stand up and make that case in court.

Against a real attorney.

Unless they’re chicken.

A New York courtroom gave every detained immigrant a lawyer. The results were staggering. [Vox]

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HeadshotJoe Patrice is an editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.