On October 27th 2022 during National Pro Bono Week, the Riverside County Law Library hosted one of its hallmark events, “Lawyers in the Library” at the Ronald H. Roberts Temecula Public Library. The event was organized by Emily Lazcano, Library Assistant at the Temecula Law Resource Center. Her talents in outreach brought together six of Temecula’s esteemed attorneys to provide 20 minutes of pro-bono legal consultation to the public. Lawyers in the areas of family law, immigration law, criminal law, and estate/property law graciously volunteered their time to participate in the event. Estate planning proved to be by far the most popular legal area. The lawyer specializing in this topic, Marty J. Nicholson, graciously agreed to offer an extra hour of her time to talk with patrons who didn’t manage to get one of the initial meetings upon their opening to the public.  

The event went off without a hitch. The environment was cheerful and lively, with the discussion centered around the joys of serving the public and bridging the justice gap. Most everybody showed up on time for their appointments, made no fuss about getting extra time, and were grateful for the expertise that the lawyers and law library provided.  

The event highlighted a key gap in Southern California’s social edifice that anybody engaged in the legal assistance field, which is simply affordable access to legal resources. As a law library assistant, I constantly receive phone calls and in-person complaints for questions that simply go above my level of capabilities. In such moments, I often say that one needs to consult a lawyer about these things, but that brings us back to where we started. The law library is usually called by low-income Americans who simply cannot afford the necessary legal services in the first place.  

Earlier this year, the LSC (Law Services Corporation) conducted and published a study titled, “The 2022 Justice Gap Study.”  LSC’s research is described as follows:  

“This study provides a fresh assessment of low-income Americans’ civil legal needs and the extent to which their legal needs are met. Additionally, its timing allows an examination of the justice gap in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has had disproportionate effects on this population. The study leverages LSC’s “intake census” conducted among LSC-funded legal aid organizations as well as a nationally representative survey of more than 5,000 adults conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago using its AmeriSpeak® Panel.” 

An excellent point to bring up as a central tension in the struggle for legal services are the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. With workplaces such as law libraries, self-help centers, and courts thrown out of joint by the new restrictions and so on, low-income Americans certainly found themselves more isolated than ever with their legal troubles, which certainly did not disappear with the disarray of the legal apparatus.  

The results of the study were at once shocking and unsurprising. According to the study, “of the estimated 1.9 million civil legal problems for which low-income Americans seek LSC-funded legal aid, 1.1-1.3 million (63%-70%) did not receive any or enough legal assistance.” The unfortunate reality of this gap between people in need of legal services and the available legal resources makes an event like “Lawyers in the Library” even more important. In order to push for more equity in the justice system, a more frequent alliance between public services, such as law libraries, and the private sector of the various attorneys working within a community must be sought. Together, we can put on more programs to directly aid and educate the public about their rights and point them in the right direction in terms of addressing their legal needs.  

The Riverside County Law Library is always looking for partnerships and collaborations with the Riverside County legal community. If you are a legal professional and interested in volunteering time with us, please visit our “Work Here” webpage and/or submit an interest email to workhere@rclawlibrary.org.

Written by: Yanis Ait Kaci Azzou, Library Assistant