Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility Commons^™

Washington’S Limited License Legal Technician Rule And Pathway To Expanded Access For Consumers, Stephen R. Crossland, Paula C. Littlewood

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

Washington’s 2012 adoption of a Limited License Legal Technician (LLLT) rule has been a topic of great interest throughout the United States and elsewhere. This Article is co-written by Steve Crossland, who is the Chair of the Washington Supreme Court’s Limited License Legal Technician Board, which is responsible for implementing the rule, and Paula Littlewood, who is the Executive Director of the Washington State Bar Association, which is the unified bar association charged, inter alia, with lawyer and LLLT regulation. This Article builds on the authors’ previous articles about Washington’s LLLT program by providing previously unpublished information about the …

Navigating The New York Courts With The Assistance Of A Non-Lawyer, Fern Fisher

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

This Article discusses a program implemented by the New York State Unified Court System in order to address the justice gap for unrepresented litigants. Part I of this Article discusses the process behind creating the New York Navigator’s Program (discussed in more detail Part II), a program designed to help non-lawyer “Navigators” to assist unrepresented litigants in a limited capacity when the litigants appear before different types of state courts. The Navigators must complete training before they are able to assist the litigants. This program has been well received, as Part IV discusses, and has helped more and more unrepresented …

Poverty, The Great Unequalizer: Improving The Delivery System For Civil Legal Aid, Latonia Haney Keith

Latonia Haney Keith

Civil justice issues in the United States bring with them no guarantee of legal counsel, yet the civil legal system is still designed to require an attorney in almost all situations. Given the ever-growing costs of legal representation, how then are the legal needs of the poor met? The author calls this phenomenon the “justice gap” and addresses the issue of an access to justice gap and proposes a potential solution.

This article examines the existence of the “justice gap,” wherein the poor face substantial barriers that hinder them from receiving the same legal protections as wealthier Americans. It goes …