The recommendation was made by the CBA’s Task Force on the Future of Legal Education and Standards of Admission. Specifically, the task force report states that:
Superior Court Judge Kenneth Shluger chaired the task force. According to the article, he believes the number of people who cannot afford traditional legal services “has reached a crisis point” and allowing trained non-lawyers to offer certain legal services “is one way the justice gap can be met.” He suggests that the place to start may be cases with a “high concentration of self-represented parties” such as simple divorces and landlord-tenant disputes.Recognizing that much legal work is already being performed by individuals with credentials less than fully licensed attorneys . . . the concept should be expanded so that non-lawyers be permitted to offer some basic legal services to the public. This would be a post-bachelor’s degree training (more than a paralegal but less than a JD) and it is expected that if the [Superior Court] Rules Committee permitted such practitioners, schools would happily train them and consumers would likely utilize them.
The article notes that before allowing this type of legal representation in the state, “many questions regarding consumer protection issues and the impact on small law firms and solo practitioners would have to be answered.”
For more information, see the full article, which appeared in the June 23, 2014 Connecticut Law Tribune.
