Wisconsin’s civil justice gap has reached a tipping point. Demand for free and low-cost civil legal help far outpaces the supply of attorneys and the funding for their services, leaving too many Wisconsinites to navigate the legal system alone.
The Wisconsin Access to Justice Commission has proposed a solution can help us meet this challenge: Licensed Legal Advocates. By empowering trained, supervised allied professionals, we can expand the legal system’s capacity and meet people where they already go for help. This change would modernize the legal services delivery system and bring it closer to the medical model where allied health professionals have been working for decades to help expand access to medical care. Licensed legal advocates won’t eliminate the need for lawyers any more than nurse practitioners ended the need for medical doctors.
We need to use every resource at our disposal to improve access to legal help for all Wisconsinites.
For a full summary of our proposal and why it is critical for Wisconsin, please visit our Licensed Legal Advocates project page.
We Need Your Voice
The Wisconsin Supreme Court is accepting public comments on this proposal (Petition 26-04) through December 31, 2026. You can submit your comments via mail or email:
- Mail: Clerk of the Supreme Court, P.O. Box 1688, Madison, WI 53701 (Include one original and nine copies).
- Email: clerk@wicourts.gov (MS Word format).