Tuesday, September 20, 2005

COURT PROPOSES AMENDMENT TO TRCP 145: ON PROOF OF INDIGENCY

The Texas Supreme Court has approved amending Texas Civil Procedure Rule 145 to alleviate contests over indigency declarations in civil lawsuits by allowing legal aid providers to certify indigence.

Under the proposal, approved Monday by the Court, attorneys from legal-assistance programs supported by money from the Interest on Lawyers Trust Accounts would be able to certify a client’s indigence. The attorney would certify that the IOLTA-supported legal assistance program screened the client under the program’s income-eligibility guidelines. IOLTA-assisted programs are subject to federal audits.

"Texas’ legal aid providers are already stretched beyond capacity,"said Justice Harriet O’Neill, the Court’s liaison to the Access to Justice Commission. "The avalanche of new legal aid cases we expect in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina will cause those lawyers to feel even more burdened. So I asked the Court to expedite this matter so that valuable lawyer time can be freed up to meet more immediate needs."

The amended Rule 145 will now be subject to public comment after publication in the Texas Bar Journal, the State Bar of Texas’ monthly magazine.