School districts and their attorneys have such tender feelings. A parent in Ohio filed due process on behalf of his son and won over a team of school district attorneys. The sweetness of his victory was short lived. Not long after his victory in the due process and in court, the Ohio Bar Association swung into action and filed suit against the parent for "unauthorized practice of law" for representing his minor child.
The Ohio Supreme Court issued an order to the Bar Association to present evidence to support the claim. Under this pressure, the action against the parent for unauthorized practice of law was dropped.
The P. Kelly Tompkins,President of the Ohio Bar Association, sounded somewhat conciliatory about the law suit stating "there was an internal breakdown" in the decision making to bring the action, but did state the action "had a legitimate, technical basis."
It is no coincidence that this action was filed against a parent who won as opposed to the norm where unrepresented parents lose and lose badly. If the concern was for the "system" then actions would be brought against losing parents as well as those that thumped the well represented school district. In Illinois, I formed a committee of lawyers and one parent/statistician to analyze the success rate of parents who have attorneys versus those that do not have attorneys. The report is known as the Archer Report for its author, Melanie Archer, the parent/statistician who analyzed the data and wrote up the findings. The findings of the report are stark: unrepresented parents lost 83% of their cases versus close to a 50-50 split when parents had attorneys.
A recent report from Maryland is even more disturbing. Several years ago, Maryland instituted a new hearing system for due process cases using professional full time Administrative Law Judges ("ALJ"). Since that time parents with attorneys have averaged a slim success rate of 10%. Which implicitly means that there are a number of ALJs in Maryland who have never ruled in favor of a parent's case over a period of years.
Instead of expending time, energy and money to "preserve the legal system" from the "predations" of desperate parents of children with special needs, the bar associations, legislatures and courts should create real access to justice for parents. Create fair hearing systems unlike Maryland and other states; force the State and Federal governments to take seriously their enforcement responsibilities so due process will not be the first and last resort for many parents when faced with an arrogant and intractable school district; and, systemically insuring that parents will have the "equal fire power" with schools that Justice O'Connor ideally described in Shaffer. We need to cut through all of the propaganda and myth and recognize that schools are not under siege from parents [just the opposite is true]. The schools are the stronger party with attorneys at the ready receiving millions in fees each year from the public coffers; the parents, on the other hand, are literally fighting for their child's future, while at the same time trying to raise a child with special needs, no easy task especially when fighting the school. Lets get our priorities straight, tell the truth, and fight the worthwhile fight for access to justice on behalf of children who are being seriously short changed across the country.
WHAT?
This has to be fiction!
Beam me up!
Posted by: George | May 08, 2006 at 06:34 PM
Yikes! Another blow to the "organized" bar!
Posted by: Ron Hunter | May 17, 2006 at 05:03 PM