Personalized or Bureaucratized Justice in Legal Services Resolving Sociologial Ambivalence in the Delivery of Legal Aid for the Poor

• NCJ Number: 100301
• Journal: Law and Human Behavior Volume: 9 Issue: 4 Dated: (December 1985) Pages: 397-413
• Author(s): R G Meadow; C Menkel-Meadow
• Date Published: 1985
• Length: 17 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: An earlier version of this paper was presented to the Midwest Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, April 28-May 2, 1982.

Annotation

This paper examines and tests some claims about the professional autonomy of attorneys working in the bureaucratic legal aid services environment.

Abstract

Following an analysis of the concept of professionalism across various types of law practices, data are offered to explore how attorneys providing legal services for the poor resolve the potential conflict between bureaucratic demands and personal or professional autonomy. The data, which consist of attorney time sheets covering some 2,284 separate legal tasks and indepth personal interviews with 23 attorneys, reveal some differences between actual practice routines and perceived personal autonomy. Overall, results suggest that there is a mix of bureaucratic practice and autonomy. It is concluded that although the conflicting demands of legal service practice may lead to sociological ambivalence, so long as the attorneys perceive themselves not as bureaucratic service providers but as autonomous professionals, there is little manifest ambivalence. Developing this adaptive strategy, attorneys see themselves as individual service providers, personalizing the justice they deliver. 31 references. (Author abstract modified)