Open Legal Services

“The board receives a draft of the 990 and reviews it prior to filing.”

“Comparable market data is reviewed and the board votes each time compensation is changed.”

“Comparable market data is reviewed and the board votes each time compensation is changed.”

“Articles of incorporation and bylaws are available on our website along with past 990 filings. Our conflict policy is available upon request.”

“Open legal services is primarily a charitable organization which offers legal services on a sliding-scale to clients in utah who do not qualify for free, pro bono help but who also cannot afford a private attorney. We offer help with divorce, custody, guardianship, adoption, parental and grandparent rights, guardian ad litem, criminal defense, and juvenile defense. Our legal services program includes direct representation, unbundled legal services, partial representation, and consultations. For our clients, who have no other options but to pay thousands of dollars while living paycheck to paycheck, we can mean the difference between injustice and access to justice. Our education program serves other attorneys and those interested in replicating what we do.”

“Our primary program is low cost legal services. This program served approximately 790 clients/cases in 2016, with an average of 128 days of care per client. These clients are those who have very limited resources, but who cannot use the services of a pro bono legal aid organization (or public defender) due to conflict, jurisdictional issues, urgency, immigration status, income restrictions, area of practice, or a number of other disqualifying factors. We accept these clients and provide services on a sliding scale. These clients would likely have been forced to represent themselves, or to forgo their legal options. The average billable rate per hour for our clients in 2016 was approximately 72, well below the average market rate of approximately 175-225 per hour. In utah approximately 80% of family law cases have at least one party who is unrepresented by an attorney. Our mission is to reduce that number in a way that clients can afford, so they may have access to justice. In 2016 we expanded to a new satellite location in northern utah which is helping us serve additional rural counties.”

“Our smallest program is educational in nature, specifically public speaking and publication about access to justice and the need for legal services which the lower and middle classes can afford. In this program, we offer consultations to potential nonprofits in other states, and speak to state bars and universities about the work that we do and the type of organization we have created. This brings awareness to our mission, while offering a viable option for other states to provide the same kinds of services to their own working poor. Our education program made up less than 1%, largely because expenses are reimbursed by stakeholders. Our education program serves to train attorneys and administrators all over the country on innovation and our nonprofit law firm model (of which there are now dozens of copies nationwide). We communicated with stakeholders in 14 states in 2016, bringing our total to 41 states. Some states had several people contact us for information about forming a similar organization, such as california (23), florida (18), and new york (11). The florida state bar flew our executive director down to make recommendations about incubator programs for a new statewide program, and the annual conference on access to justice through incubator and nonprofit law firms took place in kansas city in spring 2016. Our co- founders dan and shantelle were honored at that conference as the impetus of the nonprofit law firm movement.”