This State Wants to Censor Your Ability to Give Advice

The First Amendment’s protection for free speech isn’t limited to political advocacy or expressions of personal opinion—it extends to speech on all topics. That includes expert advice that people earn a living providing, an area known as occupational speech.

For many Americans, this sort of expert advice is among the most valuable speech for helping people navigate the real problems they face in their day-to-day lives.

That’s why the North Carolina Justice for All Project and two of its members, Morag Black Polaski and Shawana Almendarez, have joined with the Institute for Justice to file a federal lawsuit to vindicate their right to provide both free and paid legal advice regarding court-created forms.

https://ij.org/case/north-carolina-upl/

America is in the midst of an access-to-justice crisis. For many Americans facing routine legal issues—whether they relate to divorce, child custody, evictions, or any number of problems that make up the bulk of state courts’ civil dockets—hiring a lawyer to navigate these problems is simply unaffordable.

And this is not a problem limited to the poor.

It is also a problem for the “missing middle”—those who earn too much to qualify for free legal assistance from groups like Legal Aid, but not enough to afford a lawyer. The inevitable result is that many Americans must navigate the legal system on their own.