Increasing Access to Justice through Community Justice Workers: A Proposal
Increasing Access to Justice through Community Justice Workers: A Proposal
Increasing Access to Justice through Community Justice Workers: A Proposal
At Legal Link, we are passionate about fundamentally shifting where and how communities in poverty access legal information and support. By training a new frontline of community justice workers, we are expanding the legal ecosystem while allowing attorneys to operate at the top of their license. Since our founding in 2015, we have trained over 1,800 trusted community partners in our unique Legal First Aid curriculum.
The Legal Aid Association of California convened a working group of leaders from California’s legal services organizations to explore the potential for a Community Justice Worker (CJW) program. The group was co-led by Legal Link and OneJustice, with advice and support from Stanford Law School’s Deborah L. Rhode Center on the Legal Profession and Frontline Justice. The group focused on expanding the reach and impact of nonprofit legal services organizations to extend and expand on their work for the lowest-income Californians, a model we have seen work in other states.
We are thrilled to share the collaborative proposal, Increasing Access to Justice through Community Justice Workers: A Proposal.
The proposal, if implemented, would allow nonlawyer staff and community members, with training and attorney supervision, to independently do discrete, pre-authorized, and limited scope legal procedures for which there is a deep and unmet need. The proposal describes a framework for California legal services organizations to certify individual Community Justice Workers who can serve clients in need under the supervision of legal services attorneys. More about the proposal is in this FAQ.
The working group is hopeful that the proposal offers an opportunity for legal services organizations to continue to innovate and provide deeply needed services in a safe and measured way for organizations, community justice workers, and clients. We look forward to engaging in discussions with interested legal services organizations and stakeholders across the state to move the proposal forward.