Written by Briane Cornish
In November 2014, the California State Bar Board of Trustees approved the creation and appointment of the Civil Justice Strategies Task Force. The charge of the task force was to analyze the reasons for the state’s justice gap: the conundrum of how there are so many lawyers yet so many Americans have unmet legal needs and cannot afford or access legal help. Specifically, the task force intended to study creative solutions and innovative strategies in use by other states and other countries that have the potential to greatly improve access to justice in California.
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Written by Tom Gordon
The World Justice Project has released its 2015 Rule of Law Index, a comprehensive ranking of countries based on how their public experiences the rule of law. We've reported on the Rule of Law Index before, and sadly the story remains the same for the United States. While we rank among the world's leaders in most areas, we continue to bring up the rear among our peers in accessibility and affordability of civil justice. Written by Emily Lanucci
Currently, California is one of the many states in this country that has issues providing access to adequate and affordable legal services. Legal document assistants, or “LDAs”, assist self-representing parties in preparing legal documents. They help to reduce the issue of expensive or inaccessible legal representation, as they can act to provide limited legal assistance to parties that either do not need to hire an attorney or cannot afford to do so. Written by Briane Cornish A District of Columbia bar committee has proposed several rule changes that will facilitate the provision of limited scope legal representation. Limited scope representation makes legal services more affordable to low- and moderate-income individuals, by allowing them to use a lawyer for smaller tasks such a one-time consultation or help with preparing a document. For example, you could agree with a lawyer to pay a flat rate amount simply for review of a contract. Or you could pay another flat rate amount to have an experienced attorney represent you in court on one or several dates (as opposed to throughout your entire case). Written by Tom Gordon
The Washington State Supreme Court is considering rules that would move the state one step closer to licensing non-lawyers to help consumers with certain legal matters. The court is reviewing proposed rules regarding limited license legal practitioners (LLLTs). These trained and licensed service providers would be able to provide certain forms of assistance to people needing assistance with family law matters. We wrote previously about LLLTs, describing what services they will and won't be able to provide consumers. Essentially, LLLTs will have training roughly equivalent to a paralegal and will be allowed to guide customers through legal processes, but will not be allowed to represent them in court. |
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