LSC lawyers justify political litigation as serving the poor community’s interests.
Evidence
Other LSC attorneys, however, dismiss the benefits obtained through such legal work as “Band-Aids” and insist that real advances for the poor come through political litigation. These lawyers claim that the close ties they maintain with community groups keep them informed about the interests of their real clients, the poor of the community. Thus, they deny that they are unilaterally imposing their views on their clients. Even when they seek out plaintiffs to pursue issues or aggregate individual complaints into broad-based legal attacks on the practices or policies of a government agency, they insist that it is the community’s interests they are seeking to advance. The concern voiced about lawyer domination of poor clients, they argue, is insincere; those who voice the concern are really distressed by the success of the aggressive tactics employed by LSC attorneys. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 763
Categorization
- XREF: Presents the defense side of the same dispute raised in the previous paragraph’s critique; together they form a usable debate frame for class discussion of impact litigation. — connects to: Reliance on litigation atrophied the community group’s own organizing; In political litigation lawyers rather than clients control the case’s strategy and aims. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 757; In group litigation lawyers serve the group’s interests, not the individual plaintiff’s — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1176 (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- In political litigation lawyers rather than clients control the case’s strategy and aims.
#complicates(0.85) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 757 - Reliance on litigation atrophied the community group’s own organizing
#complicates(0.80) - Idealistic recruits once pressed professions toward serving the poor and respecting client autonomy.
#complicates(0.78) — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 1473 - In group litigation lawyers serve the group’s interests, not the individual plaintiff’s
#expands(0.75) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1176 - Litigation functions either as a substitute for politics or as a supplement to it.
#qualifies(0.72) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 3168