Colorado Moves Forward On Independent Domestic Relations Paralegals

The Colorado Supreme Court in a newsletter today states that: 

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.

I was on the Colorado Bar Association committee that started work on the proposal many years ago, but left when the CBA came down strongly against the development. In a rare move, however, the Colorado Supreme Court pushed to move forward despite CBA opposition.