Community Justice Advocates of Utah
Our model is grounded in community empowerment and collaboration—building a network at the speed of community trust.
We work with community organizations, leaders, and individuals to identify civil justice issues, design programs, and solicit ongoing feedback. Training courses are created by subject-area experts, including attorneys, mediators, and community workers.
Our Training Partner for Housing Stability and Medical Debt, Innovation for Justice, has been engaged in this work for over half a decade. Read more about their work with and within communities.
When problems arise, Utahns turn to their communities for help. They may not realize that their problem is a legal problem—or that there are legal tools they can access to resolve the issue.
We partner with trusted community organizations to embed legal knowledge and problem-solving tools within communities, making it more accessible.
Frontline staff—including victim advocates, case managers, community health workers, and more—receive legal education and training to gain the knowledge and skills needed to provide effective legal services.
Unlike attorneys, they receive specialized training in a narrow area of law, focused on relevant substantive law, legal procedure, and legal ethics.
One trained, frontline staff become Community Justice Advocates. They screen and accept clients within their organizations, delivering limited-scope legal help.
This legal help is delivered alongside existing organizational services, increasing the number of problem-solving tools available to clients—and the likelihood that their issue will be resolved.
CJAU delivers ongoing substantive legal, ethics and professionalism, and legal practice training to Community Justice Advocates.
CJAU also collects and reviews data on legal services provided to ensure clients are receiving appropriate and accurate legal help.
We are authorized to conduct our programs by the Utah Supreme Court through the Utah Legal Regulatory Sandbox, managed by the Office of Legal Services Innovation (OLSI).
To learn more about the Sandbox, please visit the OLSI website.
We have been authorized by the Utah Supreme Court to implement interventions in the areas of medical debt, housing, and domestic violence. These are some of the areas most impacted by the access to justice gap.
As we receive feedback from Advocates, clients, and communities, we will evaluate which additional programs to develop.
In 2020, the Utah Supreme Court authorized a regulatory sandbox, where organizations with new ideas on how to practice law could apply to be overseen by the Office of Legal Services Innovation (OLSI) and try new service models. One model organizations can use in the sandbox is to use nonlawyers to practice law.
Once programs are approved by the OLSI and Supreme Court of Utah, they are required to provide data to the OLSI on what services have been provided and any risks clients have encountered as a result of accessing these services. If a model begins presenting risk to client, the OLSI has the ability to suspend or revoke a program's authorization.
We have been authorized to support trained nonlawyers as they provide legal services at no cost.
In Utah, Timpanogos Legal Center was the first organization to receive authorization to train and oversee nonlawyers in the provision of no-cost services. That led to the creation of the Certified Advocate Partners Program (CAPP), which we now manage. The first advocates in this program began offering services in June 2021, and the program has operated continuously since then.
In Arizona, Innovation for Justice received an Authorization Order from the Arizona Supreme Court to create the Domestic Violence Legal Advocate (DVLA) program in 2020. DVLA advocate began providing services in 2021.
Similar programs exist in Alaska (2019), Delaware (2022), and Hawaii (2023). In these models, trained nonlawyers are either employed by or volunteer for legal aid agencies. The Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System (IAALS) at the University of Denver compiles information on various methods of regulatory reform, found here.
Interested in learning more? Read this article from IAALS and Innovation for Justice.
It depends! Our CJAs will be trained in specific areas of the law, and can’t provide advice outside of those areas. They are trained to identify certain legal issues and provide appropriate referrals to the client. If you have a legal issue in a different area of law, you will need to seek legal advice from an attorney who practices in that area of law. CJAs will not provide in-court representation, meaning that they can’t argue your case in court. CJAs may be able to help you prepare for hearings and may be able to attend court with you.
The Utah Courts have resources for “pro se” parties (people who are representing themselves in court). If you want to have an attorney represent you in Court, you will be responsible for finding the attorney and paying their fees.
