Access to Justice

Lawyers need to move beyond ‘access to justice’ to close the legal services gap

By many measures, lawyers’ “access to justice” initiatives are entirely ineffective: • A study (PDF) from the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services found that high-volume state courts are at “saturation level” of pro se litigants. • According to the 2012-2013 World Justice Project’s Rule…

Sep 1, 2015 8:30 AM CDT

Avvo founder tells lawyers to ‘get rid of UPL’ if they want innovation and access to justice

Corrected: At the close of the first day of the ABA’s House of Delegates meeting, the House’s Committee on Issues of Concern presented talks that were “intended to be provocative.” The talks, entitled “Issues of Concern to the Legal Profession” in the day’s program, grew out of the research of…

Aug 3, 2015 8:45 PM CDT

Immigration and access to justice will be hot topics as ABA Midyear Meeting opens in Houston

Midyear meetings of the ABA tend to focus on the administrative business of the association and many of its entities, but when this year’s meeting opens on Wednesday in Houston, there also will be some notable substantive topics on the agenda. Immigration, access to justice for persons of modest means…

Feb 4, 2015 9:10 AM CST

Hacking takes center stage as a tool to improve access to justice

A disaster-relief mobile app that provides individuals with legal information, resources and forms for assistance. An interactive tool that calculates whether a user is eligible for indigent legal services—and how much prison time criminal defendants face. A game that determines whether a user needs legal representation. A website that guides…

Oct 1, 2014 1:40 AM CDT

As we honor the past, we need fresh thinking to ensure access to justice for all

Although we learn the preamble to the U.S. Constitution in our school years, we can gain from reflecting on its words and reminding ourselves of the basic priorities the founders set for our nation: “We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish…

Sep 1, 2014 10:00 AM CDT

Part of access to justice gap is that Americans don’t know when to seek legal help, says study

Corrected: The findings of a study released Friday by the American Bar Foundation provide additional evidence of a serious gap in access to legal services for many Americans. But those findings also suggest that the reasons for the gap can’t be blamed entirely on the usual suspects. Using a list…

Aug 8, 2014 6:28 PM CDT

‘Hackcess to Justice’ teams will devise new tech to improve access to justice

As the ABA Annual Meeting gets underway in Boston, teams of law students, lawyers, and computer programmers will be gathering at nearby Suffolk University Law School to help solve a problem that continues to vex many in the legal community: While advances in technology have helped increase the availability of…

Aug 5, 2014 8:00 PM CDT

How can we apply New Normal principles to increase access to justice?

Before law school, I worked for Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the Democratic senator from New York. That job exposed me to a lot of interesting experiences, none perhaps more so than in the winter of 1980-1981, after Ronald Reagan defeated Jimmy Carter and took office as President. The initial days of…

May 8, 2014 5:14 PM CDT

Aggressive action—not tinkering—is required to resolve the access to justice crisis

There is a deep access-to-justice crisis in this country—but the legal profession gets a failing grade for its response to it. Consider this: • More than 61 million people eligible to receive legal aid—for such fundamentally important matters as avoiding the foreclosure of their homes or losing parental rights—are not…

Feb 6, 2014 3:00 PM CST

Access-to-Justice Hackathon: Call for ideas

The ABA Journal and Suffolk University Law School are planning to host a “hackathon” in conjunction with the ABA Annual Meeting this Aug. 7-12 in Boston. There’s been no formal theme selected. But there’s a general consensus that the project should further access-to-justice efforts in some way. During the hackathon,…

Feb 5, 2014 10:03 PM CST

Should small firms be the ones to close the access-to-justice gap? | How to be a great local counsel

Corrected: Last week, the New York City Bar Association announced some new pilot programs: a New Lawyer Institute, which would offer a yearlong comprehensive CLE curriculum for 2014 law grads, and a law firm incubator that would “enable new lawyers to address the unmet civil legal needs of the middle…

Nov 22, 2013 2:30 PM CST

Best way to boost access to justice? Change ethics rules, ‘13 Legal Rebel Renee Knake says

Making New Lawyers

Aug 28, 2013 5:00 PM CDT

ABA commission promotes access to civil justice with grants to five groups

Citing a goal of expanding access to civil justice, an ABA commission has announced grants to courts and legal groups in five states. The money would promote Access to Justice Commissions in states where they do not exist, according to a press release. Twenty-seven states and Washington, D.C., already have…

Mar 21, 2013 1:55 PM CDT

Stepping Up for the Underserved: Lawyers’ Pro Bono Is Key to Providing Equal Access to Justice

The perfect storm. That is how my friend Larry McDevitt, chair of the ABA Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service, describes the widening gap in our justice system. At a time when money for legal aid continues to dwindle and more Americans fall into poverty, the need for…

Nov 1, 2012 9:40 AM CDT

LSC to Grant $3.4M for Technology to Improve Access to Justice

Updated: The Legal Services Corporation announced this week that it will grant more than $3.4 million to organizations looking to improve Web-based resources for low-income Americans. The money to 43 organizations in 25 states is meant to be used to enhance pro bono, expand websites for veterans and for disaster…

Sep 28, 2012 10:42 AM CDT