STOSSEL - Licensing Madness - Fox Business Network
2010, March 11, Thursday

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[Excerpted from John Stossel's blog]

March 11, 2010 12:27 PM EST by John Stossel
Tonight's Show: More Licensing Madness

Now Wisconsin lawyers are starting a new push to drive out competition from unlicensed paralegals, and have convinced the State Supreme Court to consider creating an agency to enforce the law against "unlicensed practice of law."

The President of the Wisconsin Bar Association claims he's just looking out for consumers:

"People can get hurt when individuals without proper training or oversight handle their legal matters."

Give me a break.   The Bar Association boss represents lawyers' interests, and he  advances those by keeping low-cost competition out.

Also, lots of licensed lawyers cheat people and make mistakes. One Connecticut lawyer  accumulated 44 complaints before the state revoked his license . In one of his cases, he cost his client $2,600 and crippled her credit rating by failing to pay a $900 tax bill.

On my show tonight at 8 and 11 ET, as I mentioned earlier, I'll interview David Price, a Kansas City paralegal who went to jail for half a year because he helped 86- year old Eldon Ray write a letter defending himself against the charge of “unlicensed practice of architecture.”

Licensing laws have a chilling effect on innovation, and that means consumers pay more. According to U. Minnesota public policy professor Morris Kleiner, licensing laws cost between $34.8 and $41.7 billion a year -- on the low end, that's more than $100 for every American.

Wisconsin citizens are fortunate that their state has a weak "unlicensed practice of law" statute.