About

History

In 2015, the Conference of Chief Justices and the Conference of State Court Administrators unanimously passed Resolution 5, Reaffirming the Commitment to Meaningful Access to Justice for All. The resolutions recognized the significant advances in access to justice that had occurred over the previous decade and concluded with a call to action to achieve the aspirational goal of meaningful access to justice for all:

...the Conference of Chief Justices and the Conference of State Court Administrators support the aspirational goal of 100 percent access to effective assistance for essential civil legal needs and urge their members to provide leadership in achieving that goal and to work with their Access to Justice Commission or other such entities to develop a strategic plan with realistic and measurable outcomes; and …

the Conferences urge the National Center for State Courts and other national organizations to develop tools and provide assistance to states in achieving the goal of 100 percent access through a continuum of meaningful and appropriate services.

In 2016, civil justice leaders, experts, and funders responded to the resolution’s challenge by launching the Justice for All (“JFA”) Initiative, which included guidance materials, inventory tools, and over $2 million in funding and support over five years for 14 states and the District of Columbia to plan and build toward the systemic change required to attain justice for all.

At the five-year mark of the JFA initiative, the National Center for State Courts (“NCSC”) collected extensive feedback from state partners regarding their experiences with the JFA guidance materials and processes. These revised materials build on the original materials and are informed by that feedback. The original materials remain available as a reference tool and contain additional information about the project’s history, purposes, and commitments.

The Vision

When justice for all has been achieved, everyone will have access to the information and assistance they need to address essential civil legal needs, when and where they need it, and in a format they can use. The JFA project seeks to build a bridge from our current reality to that vision.

Currently, too many people are left without any meaningful assistance in addressing important civil legal issues like evictions, child custody, employment, immigration, debt collection, and public benefits. The consequences of these unmet legal needs can be dire not just for individual families, but for their communities, the economy, and the larger legal system. Justice benefits society and is a mutual obligation. Reaching the vision of justice for all will require lawyers, courts, legal aid, law schools, non-lawyers, and community-based organizations to work together to plan, implement, assess, and improve access to justice.

Justice for all also requires coordinated planning that is informed by current realities but that builds toward the systemic change necessary for meeting the shared vision.  The materials provided here are designed to assist states in those planning efforts.

Justice for All Resources

The Justice for All (JFA) initiative provides a set of materials and tools to assist states in moving toward the vision of justice for all. The tools are designed to assist states no matter where they are in the journey toward justice for all- from states just starting to work together to improve access to justice to those that have strong, established access to justice committees with a history of successfully working together on access to justice improvements. They tools can be used regardless of whether a state has resources for an intensive planning process and can be adapted to suit a particular state’s current environment and needs.

The JFA tools include:

  • A framework for understanding the sets of resources, services, relationships, and support systems necessary for achieving justice for all.
  • A diagnostic tool for assessing opportunities for addressing gaps in a jurisdiction’s access to justice efforts.
  • A model process for access to justice stakeholders to move from assessment and prioritization to action.