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Access to Justice Commission urges protecting limited legal‑aid dollars and expanding paraprofessionals
Summary
The Access to Justice Commission told the Joint Judiciary Committee that legal-aid funding remains far short of need, urged protection of existing small appropriations, and outlined plans to expand licensed legal paraprofessionals and a statewide online legal‑help hub to serve rural and low‑income Coloradans.
Elisa Overall, director of the Colorado Access to Justice Commission, told lawmakers the commission’s mission is to close the state’s "justice gap" — the difference between the legal help people need and what is available. She said the commission is a small, newly codified state body with a modest $100,000 annual appropriation and a staff of five, but that it has been coordinating statewide priorities including funding for legal aid, rural legal‑desert interventions and training for non‑attorneys.
Overall described four priorities: securing additional funding for full legal representation where possible; targeting resources to rural areas with few attorneys through internships and law‑library clinics; expanding licensed legal paraprofessionals (LPs) beyond domestic relations to serve broader civil needs; and launching LawHelp Colorado, a centralized online legal‑information hub to improve the quality and discoverability of self‑help resources. "If not full legal representation, then how can we provide limited scope or self‑help services," Overall said.
She asked legislators to protect small but critical program lines such as the Eviction Legal Defense Fund, the Family Violence Justice Fund and immigrant legal defense funding, noting these modest dollars provide outsized benefit to vulnerable households. The commission also advocated supporting the Judicial Department’s judgeship requests and said it will continue to push for incentives to encourage legal careers in underserved areas.
Committee members asked about metrics for rural success and the Family Violence Justice Fund’s role in civil protection orders; Overall said the commission tracks attorneys per capita, virtual clinic counts and pilot certifications for legal first‑aid workers, and that family‑violence funding primarily supports civil protection orders and related civil legal needs.
Overall said about two‑thirds of Coloradans experience a legal issue in a four‑year period and that an estimated 92 percent of civil legal needs for low‑ and moderate‑income people go unmet, quoting the Legal Services Corporation baseline to stress the scale of unmet demand.
