|
Contact: Contact Kristin Weber at 202/887-8255, kweber@halt.org
Washington, DC—Filing comments with the Utah Supreme Court today, consumer watchdog group HALT commended the court and the Utah Judicial Council for drafting a proposed rule that would protect legal consumers' access to a range of legal service providers, including less expensive nonlawyers. HALT, the nation's oldest and largest legal reform organization, recommended modifications to the rule that would ensure that the definition would be used to protect legal consumers from fraudulent service providers, rather than to protect lawyers from economic competition.
"The Court's proposed definition of the practice of law is an important step toward ensuring better access to legal services for all Utahns," said HALT Senior Counsel Tom Gordon. "Eventually, though, the court needs to realize that consumers are capable of deciding without the Court's approval who can provide legal services to them."
Utah's proposed rule offers a definition of the practice of law that, on its own, would force Utah consumers to hire a lawyer for every legal need. But the proposed rule goes on to carve out a number of exceptions to the definitions, guaranteeing that Utah consumers, whose legal needs do not always require the help of a lawyer, will have access to a continuum of legal service providers.
In written comments to the court, HALT praised the court's refusal to let a practice of law definition block consumer access to spectrum of qualified legal service providers. Other states have advanced far more restrictive definitions. HALT went on to make suggestions to the court to make its definition even less restrictive, such as including a provision that would require a consumer complaint to initiate prosecution of unauthorized practice of law to ensure that the rule would not be used as a tool of anticompetitive practices. HALT also held up for the court its own model definition of the practice of law: The unauthorized practice of law is saying you are a lawyer when you are not.
HALT's efforts in Utah follow the organization's testimony before an American Bar Association Task Force on the Model Definition of the Practice of Law in February 2003. Opposition from HALT and other groups forced the Task Force to back off from its original, overly broad proposed definition that stood to proscribe consumer access to diverse legal service providers. This leaves the duty of defining the practice of law up to individual states.
Founded in 1978, HALT—An Organization of Americans for Legal Reform is a non-partisan, non-profit public interest organization. HALT pursues an aggressive education and advocacy program that challenges the legal establishment to increase accountability, improve access and reduce costs in the civil justice system.
|
