Merco Construction Engineers, Inc. v. Municipal Court , 21 Cal. 3d 724 ( 1978 )

NEWMAN, J.

I dissent. It may be that section 87 of the Code of Civil Procedure is not a perfect answer to the vexing problem of participation by nonlawyers in adjudicatory proceedings. The majority of this court now intervenes, however, to restrict seriously the Legislature’s power to seek imaginative and improved answers to that vexing problem.

I am not persuaded here that the Legislature has violated the vague commands in article III, section 3 of the California Constitution. Nor am I persuaded that the word “court” (compared, say, with the phrase “administrative tribunal”) should trigger automatically the monopoly that some people think inheres in article VI, section 9 of the Constitution, regarding the State Bar. (Cf. Eagle Indem. Co. v. Industrial Acc. Com. (1933) 217 Cal. 244, 247-249 [18 P.2d 341]; and see Bennett, Non-Lawyers and the Practice of Law Before State and Federal Agencies (I960) 46 A.B.A.J. 705; State Bar Reports (Dec. 1977-Jan. 1978) p. 14 [“90,000 California lawyers in 1984”].)

Bird, C. J., concurred.