Licensure Alternatives in Family Law 

Less than a year ago, the Colorado Supreme Court approved the licensure of legal paraprofessionals (LLPs) to represent clients in certain family law matters, including divorces, separations, annulments, paternity actions, modification of child support, protection orders, and name changes, among others. The court’s rationale for approving this rule was to close the justice gap by having less expensive alternatives to lawyers. In fiscal year 2022, 74% of Coloradans involved in family law cases were pro se, meaning they represented themselves without having an attorney. Much of my pro bono work while in law school has been in family law, so I can confirm that there are many pro se Floridians navigating the family law system as well.

While this licensure alternative may make representation more affordable for clients, some people, including myself, are concerned about how it will affect lawyers. Some family law lawyers may lose much of their business to LLPs, thus harming their practice and financial security. This is especially concerning since many attorneys acquired debt to attend law school. According to the American Bar Association, the average debt of 2023 law school graduates who borrowed money to attend law school was $111,000. This concern may be overblown, however. Some clients may not know about LLPs or feel uncomfortable receiving help from a non-lawyer and will thus seek assistance from an attorney. Moreover, LLPs are limited in what they can do. LLPs cannot assist with registering foreign orders, common law marriage claims, prenuptial and postnuptial agreements, jurisdiction challenges, and parentage cases in which multiple parties are asserting or denying parentage. Also, family law issues are occasionally accompanied by bankruptcy and perhaps even criminal law issues. An LLP would not be able to assist with those areas of the law, so the client would have to either represent themselves or pay an attorney anyway for those issues.

I think it is still too early to determine whether the LLP alternative is a viable means of closing the justice gap. Washington State had a similar licensure alternative for family law issues called the limited license legal technician (LLLT) but stopped granting licenses because of a lack of interest. Perhaps lowering the cost of law school or increasing funding for legal aid societies will do more to close the justice gap. Lowering the cost of law school would lower the barrier to entering the profession and thus allow more people to become attorneys. Also, many legal aid societies are limited in what they can help with and how they can help due to funding, so providing more money to those types of organizations would allow them to hire more attorneys and assist more clients.