The Arizona Supreme Court has amended that state’s lawyer rules to allow attorneys to share fees with nonlawyers and permit “legal paraprofessionals” to give legal advice in four areas.

Arizona Vice Chief Justice Ann Timmer reviewed those changes on November 9 with The Florida Bar’s Special Committee to Improve the Delivery of Legal Services. The special committee is charged with studying “whether and how the rules governing the practice of law in Florida may be revised to improve the delivery of legal services to Florida’s consumers and to assure Florida lawyers play a proper and prominent role in the provision of these services.”

Timmer, who headed the task force that recommended the changes, said the main alterations were to eliminate its Ethics Rule 5.4, which prohibited lawyers from sharing fees with nonlawyers and allowing the new legal paraprofessionals to offer legal assistance and advice in family law, administrative, minor criminal cases that do not include incarcerations, and small civil cases such as small claims or landlord/tenant actions.