Setback for Justice Advocates in Upsolve Litigation

By Alyssa Saunders

On September 9, 2025, the Second Circuit ruled that the nonprofit organization Upsolve, Inc.’s use of trained volunteers to assist pro se New Yorkers with their debt-collection actions violated the state’s unauthorized practice of law (UPL) statutes. The Second Circuit overturned a May 2022 decision by the District Court for the Southern District of New York that prohibited New York’s Attorney General from enforcing the UPL statutes against Upsolve. As a result of the Second Circuit’s decision, people facing debt collection lawsuits who cannot afford an attorney will no longer have access to free specialized advice by trained Justice Advocates.

Upsolve, which calls itself “TurboTax for bankruptcy,” was founded in 2016 as a technology nonprofit organization to provide free legal help to people filing for bankruptcy who cannot afford an attorney. Upsolve screens users for bankruptcy eligibility and provides a free online tool that walks the user through filling out the forms required to file for bankruptcy. Legal services organizations use Upsolve to scale up their capacity and offer limited scope representation of clients needing bankruptcy support. (This technology is not at issue in the litigation.)

In addition to its creative use of technology to expand access to justice, Upsolve also decided to empower community members who are not lawyers to provide limited legal assistance to people sued by debt collectors. The need is great: approximately 25% of all lawsuits in New York are debt-collection suits, and in approximately 90% of cases, the defendant fails to respond. This means that even if the case lacks merit, the court enters a default judgment against the defendant because of the defendant’s failure to respond.

To address this problem, in 2022, Upsolve partnered with Reverend John Udo-Okon, a community member who wanted to help neighbors defend themselves in debt collection suits, to launch the American Justice Movement. The partners created a training manual to teach community members, called “Justice Advocates,” how to provide limited-scope, free legal advice in debt collection defense cases in New York. The Justice Advocates program incorporated safeguards to alleviate the risk of harm to consumers, including robust training, a narrow scope for the program, and the requirement that Justice Advocates be subject to certain state Rules of Professional Conduct.

Because the Justice Advocates were not licensed lawyers under the New York State Bar, they were vulnerable to enforcement of the UPL rules for giving specialized legal advice. In January 2022, Upsolve and Reverend Udo-Okon filed suit for a preliminary injunction to prevent the Attorney General from enforcing the UPL statutes in this situation. They succeeded at the district court in May 2022. Now, more than three years later, the Second Circuit has vacated the preliminary injunction and remanded the case to the district court.[1] This decision leaves Upsolve and the Justice Advocates subject to enforcement of the UPL statutes against them. This is discouraging news for New Yorkers who sought to benefit from these free legal services and for proponents of the Justice Advocates model.

PBI will continue to follow new developments in the Upsolve litigation as well as how technology and other innovative models can maximize access to justice.

Thank you to Kelsey Hunt, former PBI Law Clerk, for her research and contributions to this blog post.

[1] The Second Circuit concluded that the UPL statutes are content-neutral restrictions of speech, subject to intermediate scrutiny; it held that the district court committed an error of law by holding that UPL statutes are content-based and thus subject to strict scrutiny. Upsolve, Inc. v. James, No. 22-1345 (2d Cir. Sept. 9, 2025).

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