A Toolkit for Advancing Data-Driven Unauthorized Practice of Law Reform
i4J offers a toolkit and case study to provide policymakers with design options to reduce legal service barriers
In our current legal service ecosystem, the lawyers-only service model contributes to a status quo in which low-income community members don’t receive enough or any help with 93% of their civil legal problems. This toolkit is designed for anyone who wants to build the bench of community members who can know and use the law to advance equal justice. The toolkit provides a step-by-step framework for data-driven decision-making regarding unauthorized practice of law reform with the goal of creating new pathways for civil legal problem-solving services.
Unauthorized practice of law reform can help reduce barriers people face when they need legal services
What is the unauthorized practice of law?
UPL stands for the unauthorized practice of law. In most states, only licensed attorneys (with a college degree, a JD, and a bar license) can practice law.
What is unauthorized practice of law reform?
In nearly every state in the US, unauthorized practice of law restrictions prohibit anyone who is not a licensed attorney from providing legal services. Regulatory reform (which includes UPL reform) refers to the re-regulation of the practice of law to allow people who aren’t attorneys but have specialized legal training to provide legal services, including legal advice, to community members.
What are Justice Workers?
Within the past few years, formal Justice Worker programs have emerged as one promising innovation to meet the nation’s access to justice crisis. By authorizing trained community advocates to deliver certain forms of legal services, these programs are reshaping how legal support is delivered—and who can deliver it—by localizing legal help to the organizations and communities from whom people already seek help.
Thoughtful design choices are central to successfully reforming UPL to authorize people other than lawyers to provide legal help. Based on years of research using human-centered design, systems thinking, and participatory action methods to design and implement community-based justice worker programs, i4J has developed a 7-step framework which urges service model designers and decision makers to contemplate seven questions:
What are the unmet community needs that the community- based justice worker model would be addressing?
Who in the community is trusted and positioned to meet those needs?
Will the service model require UPL reform?
Who will do the training and mentoring?
Who will credential the justice worker?
Will the service model need insurance?
What will be the scope of services?
Resources for applying the seven-step framework:
See how early-stage community-based justice worker programs navigated these seven questions:
The Diverse Landscape of Community-Based Justice Workers (IAALS)
Explore and compare community-based justice worker programs throughout the country:
Web design for UPL Reform Toolkit and Domestic Violence Advocacy Case Study by Hannah Honeycutt.