Regarding “Nassau Bar Criticizes Enlisting Non-Lawyers to Represent Poor” (NYLJ, Sept. 30), it’s true that the New York City Bar has expressed concerns about nonlawyer practitioners (including regarding competence, regulation and oversight). However, in issuing a report this past June recommending a role for nonlawyer practitioners, we found these concerns to be more than counterbalanced by the services these “Courtroom Aides” and “Legal Technicians” would provide.
When more than 2.3 million low-income New Yorkers are left to navigate the civil justice system on their own; with The Legal Aid Society able to respond to only one out of nine requests for legal assistance due to lack of resources; and with requests for foreclosure assistance up 800 percent since the onset of the Great Recession, we must find ways to reduce this “justice gap” in which those who have representation fare far better than those forced by circumstance to go it alone.
