The supreme court approved the public comment period after receiving a December petition from legal aid groups seeking the creation of the program. The petition said the program was needed in response to the "access to justice crisis" playing out in California.
If adopted, the program would allow nonattorneys who have undergone special training to work alongside and under the oversight of approved legal aid organization lawyers to provide limited legal services, according to the proposed rule set forth by the high court.
The supreme court's order said it would decide after a 45-day comment period whether to adopt the proposed rule.
Under the proposed rule, an "authorizing body" will be designated by the supreme court to "accept, review, and approve applications from legal services organizations to implement and operate community justice worker programs."
The proposal said that the programs will have the authority to train and certify nonlawyers who are at least 18 and hold a high school diploma or equivalent. The proposal outlines the responsibilities of the legal services organizations operating the programs as well as the responsibilities of the California bar.
The proposed rule tasks the California bar with maintaining a roster of authorized legal services organizations and their active community justice workers that will be publicly listed on the bar's website.
The bar will also have the duty to report to the state legislature and the California Supreme Court the number of complaints it receives involving community justice workers and the disposition of complaints.
The bar's Thursday call for comments noted that similar programs have been implemented in other states.
A community justice worker program launched earlier this year in Washington, D.C., that aims to help civil litigants who don't have an attorney with cases affecting their housing, family stability and financial security.
In their December petition, the California legal aid groups stressed that community justice workers "can serve as an important part of the legal ecosystem, enabling communities to identify and vindicate their legal rights and prevent avoidable harm from having devastating impacts."
"Legal aid stands ready to train and deploy supervised CJWs to help more people reach just resolutions to their problems," according to the petition.
"By allowing CJWs to perform activities such as providing simple legal advice to someone who has just received an unlawful detainer complaint or assisting another with answering a debt collection complaint or advising a survivor on how to file for an order of protection, our legal aid organizations can increase their impact in vulnerable communities, drive better outcomes for those we seek to serve, and build trust with our community partners," it states.
--Additional reporting by Emily Johnson. Editing by Adam LoBelia.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
