Remember the 2002 film
"Minority Report" directed by Steven Spielberg and starring
Tom Cruise? Set in 2054 Washington D.C., the movie's premise was that
three people with clairvoyant powers, called "Pre-Cogs"
could predict crime down to the who, what, and where. Tom Cruise's
character, John Anderton was in charge of the Pre-Crime Unit and
believed wholeheartedly in the system's flawless accuracy. Until one
day, one of the Pre-Cogs predicted that he would murder someone
within the next 36 hours.
It's a riveting film that
raises multiple questions about the dark side of predictive
analytics. Police departments are currently testing programs that
predict where crimes may occur. According to a May, 2014 article in CNN Tech by Heather Kelly, the program appears deceptively simple.
"A
map of a city is marked up with small red squares, each indicating a
500-by-500-foot zone where crimes are likely to take place next. A
heat-map mode shows even more precisely where cars may be stolen,
houses robbed, people mugged.
The
program is called PredPol, and it calculates its forecasts based on
times and locations of previous crimes, combined with sociological
information about criminal behavior and patterns. The technology has
been beta tested in the Santa Cruz, California police department for
the past year, and in an L.A. police precinct for the past six
months, with promising results."
We intuitively use
predictive analysis daily by making personal and business decisions
based on the past. We also encounter multiple instances of predictive
analytic algorithms as we navigate through life. Did you see those
suggestions after you chose a Netflix film? Based on your past
behavior the software generates suggestions that seem to meet your
criteria. Predictive analytic models were used to predict and assess
future risks in marketing mortgage backed securities. These models
became more and more complex as the developers attempted to control
for unknown variables. The Netflix suggestions are rarely 100% on
point. And, we only have to look back to 2008 to realize that despite
all the analytic models controlling for all possible unknowns; and
all the king's horses and all the king's men, Humpty Dumpty still
fell off the wall. The analysts failed to know all the unknowns, and
failed to foresee other circumstances that finally proved their
analytic models unsound. In the housing market crash, the models did
not foresee that so many homeowners would default on their mortgage
payments at the same time.
Florida legal document
preparers encounter a special type of predictive analytics
perpetrated by and through the Florida Bar UPL Committee. Most of the
letters sent to document preparers upon the opening of a Florida Bar
investigation about their engagement in the unauthorized practice of
law, begin: "you may be engaging in the unauthorized practice of
law". The basis for the allegations are more like the methods
used by the clairvoyant Pre-Cogs than based on any actual past
behavior. In fact, only a small percentage of UPL complaints are
initiated by consumers. The lion's share of UPL complaints, in
Florida at least, are initiated by attorneys or the Florida Bar UPL
Committee itself. Consumer harm rarely seems to come into the
picture, rather, vague assertions that are all the more sinister for
their failure to even allege consumer harm are common.
A May 2014 article by Tom Gordon of Responsive Law, summarizes a recent follow up of a 1980s
study of UPL by Stanford Law Professor, Barbara Rhode, Gordon states:
"Courts are also complicit in the
pro-lawyer, anti-consumer bias found in UPL cases. Rhode’s article
shows that courts adjudicating UPL cases rarely considered whether
people were hurt by alleged UPL, much less how they were hurt. Only
about a quarter of reported cases discussed public harm when
litigated, despite the bar’s continued statements that UPL exists
to protect the consumer. In the court cases where it was mentioned,
public harm was used only to aid in determining a penalty, rather
than to discuss how UPL harmed the consumer in question. Thus, even
if UPL restrictions are intended to protect consumers, courts are not
applying them for that purpose.
Cases that are litigated under UPL
restrictions can also include legal services rendered which were
actually helpful to consumers. Regardless of whether or not the
person offering legal services provided a useful or even desperately
needed service, he/she can be penalized under UPL restrictions. If
these rules existed to protect and aid legal customers, as the bar
states, a legal service that was helpful to the person receiving it
should not be litigated under UPL. Yet Rhode found evidence
supporting the lack of interest in interpreting UPL cases from a
consumer point of view—only 11 percent of the UPL cases discussed
whether or not the violation in question had met an important public
need. The UPL services in question may have actually benefited legal
consumers, but the bar and the courts chose to ignore the interests
of the public.
One of Rhode’s conclusions is that
“[a] more consumer-oriented approach would also vest enforcement
authority in a more disinterested body than the organized bar.” The
bar may state that UPL litigation is aimed at protecting the
consumer, but Rhode’s article proves that this is a tired statement
without much substance. While the bar may have become more adept at
selling this argument, it’s no more true than it was when Rhode
first studied the topic three decades ago".
Florida publishes forms for
pro se litigants to use to file family law documents. However, those
forms and their instructions confuse and confound many consumers.
Florida legal document preparers fill the void by preparing those
documents for consumers. The Florida Association of Legal Document
Preparers - www.faldp.org promotes and supports consumers and Florida
legal document preparers.
What is FALDP?
Founded
in 2010, we offer Florida legal consumers education, legal
information, and services. We are also a voluntary trade association
for Florida legal document preparers, with around 100 members
statewide. Our website provides a wide array of
information and resources for Florida pro se litigants, including
articles, Self-Help Guides, Supreme Court approved family law forms,
and online courses. Consumers can search our Member Directory to find
a document preparer who provides the needed service. Our members
prepare documents for family law, small claims, bankruptcy, and many
other areas. Some document preparers conduct business in the
traditional way - in a storefront location or office - while other
document preparers are completely virtual - conducting business only
over the phone and over the internet. Prospective members must submit
an application and meet standards prior to joining.
Two pages have
recently been added to www.faldp.org - Compliance - where consumers
can complain if they feel they have been harmed by a document
preparer. And, another page - Recognition - where consumers can offer
feedback when they receive effective assistance from a member of the
association.
Florida legal document preparers fulfill a consumer need.
