In this episode, the Director of BWJP’s National Center on Legal Approaches to Prevent Family Violence, Kristine Lizdas, speaks with Maria Maier, a family law attorney with the St. Paul and Ramsey County Domestic Abuse Intervention Project (SPIP), and member of the Minnesota Supreme Court’s Standing Committee for the Legal Paraprofessional Pilot Project. Maria speaks with Kristine about Minnesota’s pilot effort to provide nonlawyer legal representation to survivors of domestic violence in specific case-types. Maria shares considerations for using nonlawyers in domestic violence-related cases and recommendations on the mechanics and safeguards that should be built into any effort to provide increased access to representation by nonlawyers to survivors of gender-based violence.
Resources:
Final Report and Recommendations to The Minnesota State Court
Standpoint and MNCASA Correspondence