Carie Tarte, RP®, has been invited to join the Vermont Joint Commission on the Future of Legal Services. The Commission has been tasked by Chief Justice Paul Reiber of the Vermont Supreme Court to study the question of how to ensure that all Vermonters have access to quality, affordable legal representation. It was created in a response to a sharp rise in the number of self-represented litigants in Vermont’s courts.
The Commission will consist of four committees. Ms. Tarte will join the Legal Education and Practice Committee, which will study and develop responses to such questions as:
- What reforms in the funding and provision of legal education could improve new lawyers’ ability to represent populations that currently lack representation?
- Are there changes that can be made to Vermont’s unique clerkship program that would attract would-be law students to Vermont and enable new lawyers to provide more economical legal services?
- What legal education is currently available for paralegals and other legal support personnel?
Ms. Tarte is the President and CLE Committee Chair of the Vermont Paralegal Organization. Last winter, Ms. Tarte and two other VPO members published an article in the Vermont Bar Journal entitled “Equal Access to Justice: Paralegals and Limited Legal Licensure.”
