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Police Prosecution In Rhode Island: The Unauthorized Practice Of Law, Andrew Horwitz, John R. Grasso

Law Faculty Scholarship

Every day in Rhode Island, police officers are practicing law without a license in both the District Court and the Traffic Tribunal. They do so with the full stamp of approval of the judges before whom they appear, despite the fact that the unauthorized practice of law is a crime in Rhode Island, as it is in every other state in the country. While one can certainly speculate about reasons why this practice has developed, there is nothing in any published decision of the Supreme Court of Rhode Island or in any state statute that appears to permit or justify …