A popular Russian proverb says a person can never be certain he or she will not have to beg on the street or go to jail. Aside from extreme cases, any one of us may come to need legal advice in such "everyday" matters as inheritance, residence permit, marriage, divorce, property division and right, launching a small business, etc.

In a Soviet-era lawyer's office – which usually occupied a shabby premises in one of those infamous Khrushchev five-story apartment buildings and was furnished with classical Soviet-style office furniture – you could, having roused some middle-aged alcoholic from his sleep and accompanied by tiptoeing roaches, have gotten legal advice for as little as 50 kopeks. In other words, for the average monthly wage of 150 rubles you could buy as many as 300 pieces of advice, in the hope they would make you wiser.

There was a TV program "Chelovek I Zakon" (Citizen and Law), which offered the population some enlightenment on legal issues; its host's favorite aphorism was "ignorance of the law is no mitigating circumstance." Yet, ironically, you would blister your feet looking for the Criminal Code of the U.S.S.R. in bookstores.

Soviet courts, dubbed the "most fair, impartial, professional and just" in the world in many books and films of the time, were less busy than those of modern Russia. Business disputes and property-related crimes were rare; organized crime was almost nonexistent in the Soviet Union, while the concepts of private business or private property were also nonexistent.

Legal-advice offices are still there, but now, having adjusted their prices to the rate of inflation and the ruble/dollar exchange, they charge 50 rubles ($1.6) per consultation. Though the quality has not changed drastically, a person making the average monthly wage of 4,645 rubles ($147) can buy just 92 consultations. Fortunately, there are a lot of really helpful magazines, books and Web sites on criminal, civil, corporate and other forms of law, and there is a Web site for free online legal-advice and consulting from Domashny Advocat, at http://www.home-lawyer.net.

Of course, there is the Russian Guild of Lawyers, not to mention the hundreds of legal companies of various calibers, offering a slew of services at various prices. Unfortunately, navigating the complicated world of legal advisories in the hopes of finding the best price/quality ratio is rather complicated unless you can afford to hire some of the best-known names in the business.

Now that new criminal and administrative codes have gone into effect – replacing the old Soviet codes that were adopted as far back as the 1960-1980s – Russians are said to have better access to higher-quality legal services. Also, a higher class of protection has reportedly been afforded for defendants, while restraints have been imposed on law enforcement officials.