In a Law Day survey of 50 Utah Bar Association lawyers, 31 percent, said the system's No. 1 problem is "only the rich are getting results ... the poor and middle class can't afford legal services."
The need for low-cost legal services is increasing as families foreclose on their homes and Iraq veterans need legal help claiming benefits, said consumer-rights lawyer Michele Morin of Morin Law.
"We're not doing a good job with either one of those," she said. "The nature of the economy right now is putting more people into the arena of legal assistance."
The legal community also needs to do a better job informing people about their rights, she said.
Even as more people need legal assistance, some costs are increasing, said paralegal Cynthia Maw of Mark & Associates. Documents are more frequently stored on computers now, she said, making finding and sourcing the information more complicated and expensive. A Utah court system committee is trying to help to lower costs, said State Law Library Director Jessica Van Buren. A court self-help center for the 2nd and 8th judicial districts (Davis, Weber, Morgan, Daggett, Duchesne and Uinta counties) helps people understand the legal system. The committee also is promoting unbundled services, where lawyers do specific legal services, like drafting a document or preparing a person for a hearing, for people who can't afford a full legal service and are representing themselves.
"Everyone can benefit from having a piece of an attorney's time," Van Buren said.
The results of the Utah State Bar survey also highlighted concern about the "societal trends" of pornography and domestic violence, and the skills of medical malpractice and commercial litigation lawyers.
The number of spouses and employers asking legal firms to search computers for pornography has sharpy increased over the last year, paralegal Maw said.
About one-quarter of lawyers surveyed said pornography is the most alarming trend in society.
The number of people arrested on suspicion of pornography or indecent material did seem to increase during the first half of 2007, according to Utah Bureau of Criminal Identification numbers.
From January through June 2007, the bureau reported 104 cases of porn. For the same period in 2006, 46 cases were reported; 32 were reported in 2005 and 51 were reported in 2004.
The second highest concern among lawyers in the survey was domestic violence. About 22 percent view it as society's top problem.
Another 22 percent of the respondents said the state has "world class" attorneys in the field of medical malpractice.
That field is particularly difficult because lawyers must be educated in medical terms and procedures as well as law, said health care defense lawyer Bobby Wright with Richards, Brandt, Miller and Nelson.
Attorneys also lauded their colleges in commercial litigation and intellectual property law.
