Written by Lynn Bechtol

Responsive Law has submitted an amicus curiae letter urging the Supreme Court of California to require the State Bar of California (SBC) to reform its governance structure to address insufficient public oversight of the bar.

Written by James Duffy
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The State Bar of California has established the Governance in the Public Interest Task Force to help improve the public protection function of the State Bar. California law holds the protection of the public as the State Bar’s highest priority. Responsive Law believes that unchecked self-governance by lawyers is not in the interest of the public, and issued comments offering guidelines that would better protect the public.
 

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.

Written by Emily Lanucci
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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 Elisheva Aneke

The Connecticut Bar Association Task Force on the Future of Legal Education and Standards of Admission has recommended that state regulators allow persons other than licensed lawyers to practice law under certain restrictive guidelines. In evaluating various procedures and practices in Connecticut, the task force has suggested, among other things, that court rules be modified so as to permit non-lawyers to provide basic legal services to legal consumers. While proposals for lowering the cost of a JD and shortening the law school curriculum from a three-year program to a two-year one were rejected, the task force recognized that “much legal work is already being performed by individuals with credentials less than fully licensed attorneys” and that there is and would still be a demand for these sorts of professionals.
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