Licensed Legal Paraprofessional Proposal Open for Public Comment
The Colorado Supreme Court has published for public comment the implementation plan to license legal paraprofessionals (“LLPs”) for a limited practice of law in the area of domestic relations. The 26-page plan outlines how interested paraprofessionals who meet educational and experiential requirements could become licensed for this limited practice of law by taking and passing designated family law and ethics exams and clearing character and fitness requirements.
The scope of practice would include marital dissolution and allocation of parental responsibility cases when the client meets certain income or asset criteria associated with less complicated matters. Under the current proposal, LLPs would be allowed to accompany their clients to court, and could respond to factual questions if requested by the court, but would not be allowed to orally advocate for their clients or to conduct hearings or trials.
The Court is inviting public comment on the entire proposal, and specifically the issues of what asset or income criteria are appropriate limits for LLP representation of clients. A working group has proposed that the LLPs would be allowed to serve only clients in marital dissolution cases with a net marital estate of $200,000 or less. The same working group proposed that an income cap be set for representing a client in an allocation of parental responsibility matter, which could be a dollar threshold or a percentage of federal poverty guidelines. Cases involving more assets or income tend to correlate with more complex issues for which a lawyer’s education and expertise may be needed.
Utah, Washington, and Arizona now have licensed legal paralegal or legal technician programs covering certain types of family law matters, among other matters. These jurisdictions have reported that many if not most of these licensed non-lawyers practice in firms with lawyers, but may be more affordable to modest-means clients. A number of other states are either considering or piloting similar programs.
To review the implementation plan and the various proposed rule and statutory changes, and for instructions on how to provide public comments, go to the
Court’s proposed rule change website and review the information under “PALS implementation report and plan.” The deadline for public comments is
September 14, 2022 at 4 p.m.
The Colorado Bar Association is hosting a virtual “town hall” where speakers from the working group will provide more information and answer questions about the implementation plan. That event is
August 9, 2022, from 12-1 p.m. The CBA will post the link to participate at its
website. The event is open to both members and non-members of the CBA, and is open to non-lawyers.
Additional information and updates about the LLP program can be found
here.
Proposed Changes to Colo. RPC 1.8(e)
The Colorado Supreme Court is considering changes to Colorado Rule of Professional Conduct 1.8(e) and the Comments to the Rule, which concerns providing modest gifts to indigent clients. The proposal can be reviewed
here. The deadline for comments is soon—
July 22, 2022 at 4 p.m. If submitting a public comment by email, the Clerk’s office requests that you attach your submission as separate document to your email in Word or PDF format and email to:
supremecourtrules@judicial.state.co.us. ABA Model Rule 1.8(e) was amended in 2020. The proposed amendments to Colo. RPC 1.8(e) and the proposed comments are similar though not identical to the amendments to Model Rule 1.8(e).
Amendment to Surcharge Statute
Can lawyers pass along credit card surcharges to clients? The answer used to be unequivocally “no”. The governing statute, C.R.S. §5-2-212, Surcharges on credit transactions—enforcement—definition, was amended effective July 1, 2022, to permit surcharges
in certain amounts. Lawyers should closely review the amended statute and the “Administrator’s Interpretive Opinion Letter” issued by the Colorado Attorney General’s Office regarding the amended statute. The Opinion can be accessed
here.
