In an effort to address the lack of access to civil legal services for low-and moderate-income Texans, the Texas Supreme Court formed the Texas Commission to Expand Civil Legal Services in November of 2015 dedicated to the following:
“Evaluate recent efforts to make the court system more accessible for self-represented litigants, and make recommendations on how the courts can interact more effectively with unrepresented parties and increase access to legal information, assistance, and representation. Examine similar efforts in other states.”
Read more about the creation of the commission.
The Report
Recently, this Commission issued its first report and listed eight recommendations. See full report.
The Commission’s third recommendation focuses on connecting low-and moderate-income Texans to attorneys who provide affordable civil legal services, such as DiFilippo Holistic Law Center.
Specifically, the Commission recommends that the Texas Supreme Court should encourage the State Bar of Texas, the Texas Access to Justice Commission and local bar associations to create “pipelines” of services for modest-means clients.
Additionally, the Commission found that 38% of self-help legal centers do not refer modest-means individuals to attorneys, even though such individuals may be able to afford an attorney providing limited scope legal services. The Commission also found that legal-aid organizations do not refer modest-means individuals, who do not qualify for its services, to attorneys who may be able to assist them. The Commission refers to these failures as “cracks in the system.”
Filling the Cracks
DiFilippo Holistic Law Center serves to fill the “cracks in the system” referenced by the Commission’s report, and is encouraged that through the creation of these “pipelines” DiFilippo Holistic Law Center will be able to serve more low-and moderate-income Texans.
