Long time readers of this blog may remember old posts about how some states have slowly approved regulation to allow “non-lawyer professionals” to provide legal services. The terminology used to describe the professionals and the types of services varies quite a bit, but the idea is to allow certain trained professionals who are not admitted to the practice of law to provide some services that would otherwise be considered to be exclusively reserved for lawyers. Obviously, the idea is to provide more (and perhaps less expensive) access to legal representation given that studies have always shown that there is a need for such access.
The success of these programs has also varied, with at least one eventually being abandoned, but that would be the subject of a different conversation.
I am writing today to report that, as of last month, New Hampshire extended such a program for another five years and expanded the “jurisdiction” of the professionals allowed to participate in it to include all state Circuit Courts. Eligible paralegals under the program may appear in cases related to family law, domestic violence, stalking orders of protection, and landlord-tenant cases. The new statutory language can be found in the New Hampshire Statutes, Title XXX: Occupations and Professions, Chapter 311 (Attorneys and Counselors), Section 311:2a (Legal Services by Paraprofessionals). You can find a link to the section here, although as of the time of this post, the section’s language has not been updated with the newly approved statute. The original statute (as of now) is here. It is possible that some time soon you will be able to use this same link to see the new language, but as of now this link takes you to the statute that went into effect in 2023. If you want the new version, look for the language adopted in June 2024.
Thank you very much to Jonathan Teller-Elsberg for the update!
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