ARTICLE 3
REGULATION OF PRACTICE OF LAW
As used in this chapter, the term:
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"Approved law school legal aid agency" means an established or proposed department, division, program, or course in a law school under the supervision of at least one full-time member of the school's faculty or staff who has been admitted and licensed to practice law in this state, conducted regularly and systematically to render legal services to indigent persons, the purpose, method, and content of which are approved by a judge of the superior court as provided in this chapter. When a law school legal aid agency has been approved as provided in this chapter, it is contemplated that the resources of the legal aid agency, including the services of third-year law students regularly enrolled therein, will in their entirety provide competent and professional legal counsel to the indigent persons served thereby.
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"Indigent person" means a person financially unable to employ the legal services of an attorney as determined by a standard of indigency established by a judge of the superior court as provided in this chapter.
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"Law school" means a law school in this state which is approved by the American Bar Association or which is authorized to operate under Code Section 20-3-250.8 or which was chartered and began operation in this state prior to February 10, 1937, and continued in operation in this state on March 28, 1967.
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"Legal aid" means legal services of a civil, criminal, or other nature rendered for or on behalf of an indigent person without charge to the person.
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"Practice of legal aid" means participation by a third-year law student in an approved legal aid agency and, as an adjunct thereof, under its sponsorship and solely in connection therewith, the rendition of legal services to indigent persons without charge to the persons. When a third-year law student has been authorized to practice legal aid under this chapter, he shall, to the extent involved in his participation in the legal aid agency, have the authority to practice law as if he were admitted and licensed to practice in this state, except that all pleadings and other entries of record must be signed by a licensed attorney and, in the conduct of a trial, a licensed attorney must be present.
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"Staff instructor" means a full-time professional staff employee of a law school in this state who has been admitted to the bar of another state, but who has not yet been admitted to the bar of this state, and who is actively engaged in the work of an approved law school legal aid agency.
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"Third-year law student" means a student regularly enrolled and in good standing in a law school in this state who has satisfactorily completed at least two-thirds of the requirements for a first professional degree in law (J.D. or its equivalent) in not less than four semesters or six quarters of residence.
(Code 1933, § 9-401.1, enacted by Ga. L. 1967, p. 153, § 1; Ga. L. 1970, p. 336, § 1; Ga. L. 1990, p. 1166, § 2; Ga. L. 1994, p. 97, § 15.)
OPINIONS OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
Appearance of certified students at administrative hearings without accompanying counsel.
- While persons appearing before the Department of Public Safety hearing officers on the issue of driver's license revocations generally must either represent themselves or be represented by licensed attorneys employed by those individuals, when such persons are indigents those individuals may be accompanied by certified, third-year law students working through an approved legal aid society, who may offer the individuals legal advice during the hearings; since such proceedings are administrative hearings, and not trials, such certified law students may appear at the hearings without licensed counsel accompanying the students. 1972 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 72-54.
