Montana Lawyer October/November 2025

Court Seeks Comment on Proposal to Allow Certified Lay Advocates in Justice and City Courts

successful Tribal Advocacy Incubator Project, which trains community members to serve as lay advocates in tribal courts. The petition underscores the growing justice gap in Montana: nearly nine out of ten low-income Montanans receive little or no legal help with civil legal issues, and many rural counties have five or fewer practicing attorneys. The proposed rule change seeks to alleviate that gap by allowing certified CJWs to offer essential legal services under strict supervision. In an order dated September 30, 2025, the Chief Justice directed that the petition be published for 60 days of public comment. The order also requires that the petition and relat ed materials be posted on the websites of the Supreme Court, the State Bar of Montana, and the State Law Library. Copies have been distributed to the Access to Justice Commission, the Montana Legal Services Association, and the University of Montana’s Alexander Blewett III School of Law The full petition and order are available on the Montana Supreme Court’s website under Case No. AF 11-0765.

The Montana Supreme Court is considering a proposal from the Montana Legal Services Association (MLSA) to authorize certified lay advocates — known as Community Justice Workers (CJWs) — to provide limited legal services in justice courts and city courts across the state. The petition was filed on September 15, 2025, and is docketed under Case No. AF 11-0765. The proposal, developed with support from the Access to Justice Commission, the State Bar of Montana, and the Office of the Supreme Court Administrator, aims to expand access to justice for low-income and rural Montanans who face significant barriers to obtaining legal representation. Under the plan, trained non-lawyer advocates would be authorized to assist clients in limited civil matters — initially Orders of Protection cases — with future expansion into simple hous ing and consumer issues. According to the petition, CJWs would be trained and mentored by MLSA attorneys, complete a certification process, and be bound by professional conduct rules and confidentiality requirements. The program builds on MLSA’s

Subcommittee recommends Montana adopt the NextGen bar exam and retain the ABA accreditation standard for admission STATE BAR NEWS

assigned to a subcommittee of the Task Force chaired by Greg Murphy, a former chair of Montana’s Board of Bar Examiners and the National Conference of Bar Examiners. It also included Dean Elain Gagliardi, Lt. Gov. Kristen Juras, the current chairs of the admissions commissions of the Montana Supreme Court, and other noted experts in the field. Gaining momentum after the brief return of the diploma privilege in some states brought about by the global pandemic, the national conversation around legal education and admis sion to the bar has turned to so-called alternative paths to admission, covering both legal education and the bar examina tion process. In states some western states, including Oregon, Washington, and Nevada, experiments are underway that challenge traditional notions of legal training and assessment.

The last issue of the Montana Lawyer examined the work of the Task Force on the Future of the Legal Profession, focusing on access to justice in Montana, particularly the Community Justice Worker program recommended by the Task Force subcommittee on access to justice, and now being devel oped by Montana Legal Services Association (MLSA). MLSA recently filed a petition with the Montana Supreme Court seeking permission to move forward with the program. The petition is available for review in the news section of the State Bar website. A second, and equally important, part of the Task Force's work involved examining the current state of legal educa tion and bar admissions, a topic that has attracted significant national scrutiny over the past several years. That work was

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