For far too long those without substantial income or assets were priced out of quality legal assistance. Justice is meant to be ‘blind’ in theory but in today’s reality of attorney’s fees typically starting at four-hundred dollars per hour and going into the thousands per hour, only a small fraction of those in need of legal services can afford representation. Beyond criminal defense where low-income individuals can sometimes qualify for free legal defense representation, other areas of law remain out of reach to the low or even middle income individual. This is nothing short of injustice within the justice system. For example, nearly eighty percent of asylum seekers are unable to afford or otherwise obtain legal representation and the odds of such unrepresented individuals receiving a denial of asylum are five times higher than those with attorneys according to TRAC (Asylum Representation Rates Have Fallen Amid Rising Denial Rates (syr.edu)). Similar statistics can be found in other areas of law such as family law, bankruptcy, civil defense and landlord-tenant law, to name a few.
LILAC was founded in 2022 by California attorneys who have been each practicing more than 25 years and wish to volunteer their time or substantially reduce their fees to assist those who would otherwise be denied equal justice based solely on their income (or lack thereof). LILAC strives to ‘even the playing field’ to give anyone their just ‘day in court’ irrespective of ability to pay. Access to justice should not be commensurate with one’s pocketbook. It should be a universal right and LILAC strives to help make it such.
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