Flipsource

The legal system of the United States is a vital component of the country’s ability to keep its citizens safe and secure from harm and forms an essential link in its structure of civil institutions. That being said, the complexity of the system of law in the United States, complicated by the existence of both myriad devices for enacting regulations and laws and by the high preparedness on the part of both government agencies and private individuals for pressing their own legal agenda through civil and criminal means ensures that it can require a substantial allotment of both legal ingenuity and sometimes of finances to amass sufficient legal resources for navigating through the system to a successful and desired-for conclusion. An unfortunate, often noted reality of the American legal system is that often the people who are the most in need of legal resources are also those who have the least degree of ease in accessing legal resources, for disadvantages that can include limited financial funds and social prejudice. For this reason, an important legal resource that is, at least ideally, made available to such disadvantaged people in the practices of the United States legal profession is that of work which is performed “pro bono,” or free of charge.