The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Wednesday weighed whether to allow New York to enforce its statute barring the practice of law by nonlawyers against a nonprofit that is running a free legal advice program for low-income individuals facing debt collection suits.
New York is challenging a preliminary injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Paul Austin Crotty, who said in a 2022 ruling that the nonprofit Upsolve’s program is protected under the First Amendment as speech. The judge said the unauthorized practice law is not narrowly tailored to achieve the state’s interest in protecting the public from the dangers of incompetent law practice.