Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 6, 1994 TAG: 9402040038
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: F-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: PHOENIX LENGTH: Medium
Instead of hiring a lawyer, they went to a document-preparation service that charged $275 for the bankruptcy and $350 for the divorce, helping the couple fill out the forms and file them with the courts.
Except for appearing in court when their cases were heard, "we didn't have to do anything except sign papers and give information," the 30-year-old moving company employee said. "I'm happy with the whole thing."
Their experience reflects a significant shift in the legal business that has expanded the range of services nonlawyers can perform, narrowing the expensive domain once run exclusively by lawyers. Arizona is among the most liberal states in the country for nonlawyers.
Document-preparation businesses, paralegals and similar services are unregulated in Arizona and have flourished since a state law barring the unlicensed practice of law expired in 1985. They can't appear in court or provide legal advice, but they're active in most areas of noncriminal law.
Some aren't happy with that. A State Bar of Arizona task force says many people using nonlawyers end up worse off in time, money and aggravation because of mistakes in filling out forms, paperwork rejected by courts and other problems. Examples cited include botched living wills and assets left unprotected in bankruptcies.
Similar complaints as well as concerns about the availability of legal services are heard across the country as nonlawyers get more active.
David J. Brent, counsel to the American Bar Association's Commission on Nonlawyer Practice, said some states are wrestling with how to define limits on nonlawyers.
The supreme courts of Nevada and Florida, for example, have ordered their states' bars to prepare reports on whether nonlawyers should be allowed to provide legal services. The Minnesota Legislature has ordered its Supreme Court to issue rules by July 1995 to allow some form of licensing for nonlawyers, Brent said.
Most states are more restrictive than Arizona in allowing or regulating the sale of legal services by nonlawyers.
Florida, New Jersey, Ohio and Texas are active in policing the unauthorized practice of law, while Illinois and California are examples of states where only "the worst cases of fraud are brought to the attention of prosecutors," Brent said.
In Arizona, the State Bar is poised to ask the state Supreme Court to adopt rules to create a new licensing system for "nonlawyer legal technicians" who could by themselves fill out forms in specific areas of law, and "legal assistants" who could do more but have to work under the supervision of a lawyer.
A commission would be created to investigate complaints.
by CNB