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On March 29, the Oregon State Bar will make history—in an attempt to alleviate the large percentage of people going to court without legal representation. The historic event is the licensure of 10 paralegals to perform some legal services.
The 10, nine of whom currently work for the law firm of Stahancyk, Kent & Hook, may represent clients in family law and eviction cases, performing many of the services that lawyers now provide.
The problem they might address: 84% of clients in family law and eviction cases go to court without a lawyer. Since 2017, the bar has worked toward expanding its membership to alleviate the shortage, over the objections of many of its members, who argued paralegals should not be granted rights reserved for lawyers.
“This culminates a year of work and study, opens up an entirely new profession for Oregonians, and will give us one more tool in the box to address the access to justice gap statewide,” says Oregon State Bar spokeswoman Kateri Walsh. “It is historic indeed.”