Lawyers and judges need to include consumers and community-based organizations in their design- and decision-making process for implementing legal regulatory reform, according to a panel at the Legal Services Corp.'s Innovations in Technology Conference on Friday.

Stacy Butler, director of design hub Innovation for Justice, said during the panel that after four years of studying legal innovation, the organization found that the lawyers and judges spearheading regulatory reform in their states were not engaging with community members.

Early regulatory reform in some states might have failed because decision makers didn't engage with community members who were supposed to benefit from the reform, Butler said.

"We would recommend other jurisdictions consider bringing all of these people together," she said.

The panel discussed Innovation for Justice's research on legal innovation and the framework it created for legal regulatory reform that empowers nonlawyer advocates in the nonprofit sector to provide limited legal advice to low-income community members that they already serve.

The other panelists were Tate Richardson, a post-graduate fellow at Innovation for Justice; Cayley Balser, a community-engaged research operations lead at Innovation for Justice; Anna Harper-Guerrero, vice president and chief strategy officer at Emerge! Center Against Domestic Abuse; and Arizona Supreme Court Justice Ann Timmer.

Richardson said Innovation for Justice found in a survey it conducted in Utah that consumers trusted someone with legal training, but not a law degree, more than they trusted an attorney, and that they preferred receiving help from community based-organizations, friends or family.

More than 65% of consumers responded that they were interested in getting legal advice from an advocate, while less than 17% of consumers reported that they were interested in getting legal advice from a lawyer, Richardson said.

Richardson said the reason that fewer consumers in this survey might have been interested in receiving legal advice from attorneys is because they know lawyers are expensive and these consumers couldn't afford their rent, much less an attorney.

"[Consumers] want to receive services from someone who looks like them, understands their situation and are trusted members of their community," she said.

Balser added that Innovation for Justice also found in its research that community-based organizations are not informed about legal regulatory reform opportunities, but they would like to be able to give limited legal advice with adequate training.

Current regulatory reform opportunities impose many barriers for community-based organizations, including time, education requirements, certification and financial cost, Balser said.

"Consumers are already asking community-based organizations legal questions and staff would like training to properly advise clients," she said. "However, it is important to CBOs that this training is manageable and does not take significant time away from their existing duties."

Butler noted that no amount of pro bono or legal aid provided by attorneys will close the access to justice gap.

"In our current status quo, only really the most privileged and educated among us are empowered to know and use the law," Butler said. "This lawyers-only service model is contributing to the justice gap in this country."

--Editing by Daniel King.