The Texas Supreme Court has delayed the effective date of rules for allowing non-attorneys to perform some legal services, saying it will take the extra time to "give due consideration to the comments received."

The rules for licensed legal paraprofessionals and court-access assistants approved in August were set to take effect at the start of December, following a comment period that would end Nov. 1.

Monday's order did not provide a new timeframe for the rules but said the delay was "pending further order of the court."

If enacted, the rules will allow licensed legal paraprofessionals and court-access assistants to offer some legal services on family law, estate planning, probate law and consumer debt law matters.

The decision comes after the State Bar of Texas proposed changes to the pending rules last September that would require court-access assistants to be supervised by a sponsoring agency such as a legal aid group.

The bar's rules would have also required professionals to have at least an associate degree, rather than just a high school diploma, and raised the required number of annual continuing legal education hours from 10 to 15.

The bar proposed mandating more language to inform clients of their rights and subjecting paraprofessionals to many of the same rules as those imposed on Texas lawyers.

The state Supreme Court proposed rules aimed at making legal services more accessible to low-income Texans.

The National Center for Access to Justice's justice index ranked Texas among the lowest of states for access to legal aid attorneys. According to the Texas Access to Justice Foundation, individuals in the state cannot earn more than $18,225 a year to qualify for free civil legal services, and a family of four must not earn more than $37,500.

--Additional reporting by Lynn LaRowe. Editing by Marygrace Anderson.