Utah Task Force Calls for ‘Reimagining the Way Legal Services are Regulated.’

The Utah Supreme Court has unanimously voted to approve a pilot program allowing non-traditional legal services proposed by a Utah Task Force.  

At the request of the Utah State Bar, the state’s Supreme Court created a work group to suggest a new structure that would “profoundly reimagin[e] the way legal services are regulated in order to harness the power of entrepreneurship, capital, and machine learning in the legal arena.”  

Following a similar trend seen in California, the new regulations would provide for broad-based investment and participation in business entities that provide legal services, including non-lawyer investment in and ownership of these entities.  

Currently, the United States ranks 99th out of 126 countries in access to and affordability of civil justice. The report proposes new regulations to remedy this: “If legal services can be provided to litigants and those with potential legal problems in a much more cost-efficient way, then true access to justice becomes possible for millions of people.” 

In the work group’s report, they recommended:  “(1) substantially loosening restrictions on the corporate practice of law, lawyer advertising, solicitation, and fee arrangements, including referrals and fee sharing; and (2) simultaneously establishing a new regulatory body (sometimes referred to as a regulator) under the supervision and direction of the Supreme Court to advance and implement a risk-based, empirically-grounded regulatory process for legal service entities.”

The report further explained that these suggestions are meant to allow the legal industry to develop new and innovative offerings that could benefit the public and help the Utah Supreme Court understand how current regulations might need to be selectively or permanently relaxed to make way for industry advancement. 

The Utah Supreme Court has not issued a written order regarding this vote but is expected to issue a press release to provide further details. You can find out more here.