The Legislature hereby finds and declares all of the following:
(a) Legal aid programs provide a valuable service to the public by providing free legal services to the poor.
(b) Private, for-profit organizations that have no lawyers have been using the name “legal aid” in order to obtain business from people who believe they are obtaining services from a nonprofit legal aid organization.
(c) Public opinion research has shown that the term “legal aid” is commonly understood by the public to mean free legal assistance for the poor.
(d) Members of the public seeking free legal assistance are often referred by telephone and other directory assistance information providers to for-profit organizations that charge a fee for their services, and there are a large number of listings in many telephone directories for “legal aid” that are not nonprofit but are actually for-profit organizations.
(e) The Los Angeles Superior Court has held that there is a common law trademark on the name “legal aid,” which means legal services for the poor provided by a nonprofit organization.
(f) The public will be benefited if for-profit organizations are prohibited from using the term “legal aid,” in order to avoid confusion.
(Added by Stats. 2009, Ch. 457, Sec. 3. (AB 590) Effective January 1, 2010.)
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