CHARLOTTE — Many people need lawyers but can’t afford them.
Some represent themselves. Others turn to legal services groups like Legal Aid. A lot of attorneys, including Channel 9’s Jason Stoogenke, volunteer their time through pro bono work. Now, North Carolina is exploring another option specifically for civil cases.
North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Anita Earls posted on social media earlier this year, “Nearly half of North Carolina counties are classified as ‘legal deserts’... [leaving] many working families, rural communities, and people in low-income areas with limited or no access to legal services.”
When people need a lawyer and don’t have one it doesn’t impact just them. It can affect the community as well.
“There are a lot of downstream consequences,” said Alicia Mitchell-Mercer, who works for Frontline Justice, a nonpartisan group looking for ways to increase access to legal help. “You could imagine someone who might be facing a wrongful eviction. If they can have someone intervene and prevent that eviction, those are services that they won’t have to pull from a homeless shelter or from some other assistance.”
Plus, the court system is already burdened. Things tend to move more smoothly when people have representation.
“If you get someone to intervene early in the process, then they don’t necessarily have to take up that time on a docket or in the courtroom,” she said.
The North Carolina Supreme Court formed a commission to look for solutions, including one idea some states, like South Carolina, are already trying: “community justice worker programs.”
“They’re relaxing that unauthorized practice of law statute in order to allow people who are not lawyers, but are trained to give specific legal advice to do so and help more people in the community,” Mitchell-Mercer said.
In South Carolina’s case, the state Supreme Court approved a pilot program in 2024 that allows trained housing advocates to provide limited help to renters facing eviction.
But it’s not as easy as it sounds. States are very serious about making sure people don’t practice law without a license, so relaxing those rules would be a big deal.
One: some lawyers worry about losing business.
Two: some worry non-lawyers may not give the same representation licensed attorneys give.
Three: since lawyers had to go to law school and pass the Bar Exam, some feel others should as well.
That said, the American Bar Association passed a resolution in favor of studying community justice worker programs. Plus, the rules of ethics leave it up to each state to decide what actually counts as practicing law. The ABA supports that too.
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