Take a look at this story out of Massachusetts. Some doctor groups there fought (unsuccessfully) to keep pharmacies from opening nurse-staffed in-store medical clinics, arguing that such clinics would jeopardize patient safety.
And now compare that story to this one in Hawaii, where the Bar is trying to ban non-lawyers from performing routine and minor law-related functions on the grounds that it could hurt clients' interests.
It's basically the same story, just in different states and involving different professions. But the bottom line is the same: professions protect their turf by citing consumer safety, even though there is little or no evidence of harm from nurse-staffed medical clinics or the provision of routine law-related services by non-lawyers.
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