Civil Justice at the Crossroads: Should Courts Authorize Nonlawyers to Practice Law?
75 Stanford L. Rev. Online pg.104 (2023)
13 Pages Posted: 8 Jun 2023
Date Written: June 7, 2023
Abstract
This essay describes the path-setting decision in People v. Alfani, a 1917 misdemeanor case in which the New York Court of Appeals concluded that only lawyers, and not notaries public, could prepare commercial legal documents for a fee. The result was both to expand the concept of unauthorized practice of law beyond courtroom advocacy and to reject the European model in which classes of professionals other than lawyers could provide discrete services that involve legal drafting and advising. The decision charted the path of civil justice in the United States, with the result that, more than a century later, those who cannot afford or otherwise obtain a lawyer’s help with a civil legal problem are left with no legal assistance from anyone. The essay concludes by asserting that it is time to change course by authorizing nonlawyers to perform discrete legal tasks that they can become qualified to perform.
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