The task is tall and time is short as the Bar’s Special Committee on Greater Public Access to Legal Services races to meet a deadline to provide recommendations to improve the delivery of legal services to Florida consumers while continuing to assure lawyers play a proper and prominent role.

Reporting to the Board of Governors at its July 29 meeting in Palm Beach, Co-Chairs Jay Kim and Wayne LaRue Smith said the panel is studying the expanded use of certified legal interns; the use and promotion of prepaid legal services plans; simplifying and standardizing court divisions; acquiring more funding for civil legal aid; intensifying the use of court navigators; and leveraging technological assets to improve access.

Kim emphasized these are only “early ideas” that are being fleshed out and nothing is yet settled.