California Access To Justice Commission

Responding to the need highlighted by the Legal Aid Association of California and in our report about the crisis in legal aid recruitment and retention (https://calatj.org/publications/legal-aid-recruitment-retention-and-diversity), the Legislature in 2023 authorized legal aid programs to use Interest on Lawyers Trust Account and Equal Access Funds for a tax-advantaged Loan Repayment Assistance Program administered by CalATJ. CalATJ obtained its license from the Department of Financial Protection and innovation in mid-April, and began operations before June 30, 2024. As of June 30, 2025, fourteen contributing legal aid organizations had donated over $650,000 ($354,571 in the calendar year) and nominated 300 participants to receive distributions. As federal loan interest rates and monthly payments increase, LRAP programs are all the more important.

- We released a report about the current challenges California litigants face because too few court reporters are employed by trial courts.(https://calatj.org/publications/a2r ) One million Superior Court hearings a year are conducted without providing an official transcript. The report described the rights and interests at stake, the harms this causes, and options for addressing it. It has been widely quoted in submissions to the ongoing writ proceeding on the issue in the California Supreme Court, FVAP v. Superior Courts, S288176, and in submissions to the Legislature regarding a bill to allow greater use of electronic recording subject to conditions. - LRS/Nonprofit Collaborations Last year, CalATJ supported the proposed amendments to Business and Professions Code Section 6155. The amendments permit nonprofits to participate in lawyer referrals, under a new exception to the prohibition against an entity that is not a Certified Lawyer Referral Service (LRS) from making referrals to specific lawyers. CalATJ has provided the State Bar with a report that provides suggested regulations, as well as suggestions, and questions for further consideration on ways for LRSs to enhance access to justice for Californians through nonprofit collaborations, and we discussed enhancements that do not depend on such collaborations.- Approximately 15 other programmatic activities plus roughly 40 committee meetings. See https://calatj.org/news/read-the-california-access-to-justice-commissions-2024-annual-report

With a grant from the California Lawyers Foundation, we have developed a project, Your Life, Your Plan, to connect individuals with serious health conditions referred by health care providers to County Law Librarians, and then to pro bono and affordable lawyers to locate and complete the following documents (as needed): Advance Health-care Directive, Psychiatric Advance Directive, Statutory Will, Simple Revocable Trust, Power of Attorney.