Work continues on study to improve the delivery of legal services
With the Supreme Court awaiting its recommendations by the December deadline, the Special Committee on Greater Public Access to Legal Services should consider practical solutions and bold proposals, said Bar President Gary Lesser.
The Board of Governors, at the urging of the Supreme Court, formed the special committee in March.
That was soon after the Supreme Court announced it would not adopt most of the recommendations of its Special Committee to Improve the Delivery of Legal Services — including testing non-lawyer ownership of law firms, fee splitting with nonlawyers, and broadly expanding the work that paralegals are permitted to perform.
The new committee has been given a December 30 deadline to recommend ways to improve the delivery of legal services to Florida consumers, while also “assuring that lawyers play a proper and prominent role.”
Co-chaired by veteran board members Jay Kim and Wayne Smith, the 16-member committee is made up of Bar leaders, legal aid representatives, and Linda Goldstein, one of two public members who serve on the Board of Governors.
For the past five months, the committee has reviewed a trove of research material, including national studies of pilot programs.
Preliminary discussions have centered on expanded use of certified legal interns, expanded use and promotion of prepaid legal services plans, increasing funding for civil legal aid, intensifying the use of court navigators, and leveraging court technology.
The discussions continued at its latest meeting.
In addition to working on practical solutions, Lesser suggested the long-term goal of every Florida law student participating in a “clinical internship.”
Lawyers are criticized for not having a residency requirement like the medical profession, Lesser said. The skilled trades, including plumbers and electricians, have a long history of apprenticeship, he added.
“I do believe that one way or the other, we are going to start to move toward having some sort of a true internship requirement,” he said. “It’s going to happen…why not let Florida be a leader?”
Lesser also suggested the panel consider amending Florida Bar Rules Chapter 9, which governs prepaid legal services plans. Lesser said he has been asked frequently about the plans during his travels across the state.
“Is there a way to broaden the rule, to change the rule in a way that its port of entry is more accessible?” he asked. “One of the challenges of course is how does it work? Is a one-lawyer firm a pre-paid legal service plan?”
Kim, the committee’s co-chair, said he serves as the board liaison to the Bar’s Prepaid Legal Services Plan Committee, and promised to get more information.
“I’ll figure out a little more about the landscape of what’s going on there when I go to the meeting,” he said.
Amy Farrior, another board member who serves on the special committee, said she was encouraged by a “low-tech” proposal to steer potential pro se litigants from court websites — before they commit to representing themselves — to a Florida Bar landing page that details other options.
“The idea is to help [the self represented] get information,” she said. “Something saying that pro se is not the way to go if you have options….here’s other ways you can get a lawyer.”
Smith, the board member and co-chair, said the committee should recommend that the Supreme Court adopt something similar to Federal Rule 26 (Duty to Disclose; General Provisions Governing Discovery).
More stringent up-front disclosure requirements could significantly reduce discovery costs, Smith said.
“In my experience, a significant portion of the expense of civil litigation, any kind of civil litigation, is the discovery, so it might help to streamline that a little bit,” he said.
Smith began his legal career as a paralegal and has served as a liaison to the Florida Registered Paralegal Enrichment Committee. A champion of the program, he acknowledged that the Bar has long opposed an expanded role for paralegals, at least partly because of the risk it poses to the public.
But he urged the committee to consider reviving a proposal from last year that called for creating a limited pilot program, within a civil legal aid group, that would allow Florida Registered Paralegals to assist tenants in landlord-tenant disputes and debt-collection cases.
“The whole idea is to meet the needs that are not being met by lawyers with the models that we have now,” Smith said.
Kim reminded the panel that to meet its December 30 deadline, draft recommendations will have to be completed by the first week of November.
