Massachusetts Justice for All Web Page
Massachusetts Justice for All Strategic Action Plan
Strategic Planning Grant: 2016
Implementation Grant: 2018
Massachusetts is focusing on four areas of specific interest: the ecosystem of resources, consumer debt, housing and family law. Its priorities are to: help users navigate resources and expand capacity to provide a variety of types and levels of user-friendly legal assistance; take a user-focused approach and empower individuals with unmet needs to recognize and obtain necessary legal assistance; implement multi-door courthouse and collaborative approaches; use triage to rethink how to match resources to users’ needs; and focus on data collection and assessment.
Its action plan includes:
- Supporting efforts to expand the reach of court-based self-help support;
- Promoting increased private bar involvement in serving low- and moderate-income individuals;
- Simplifying and improving forms, notices and court processes;
- Raising awareness about tenant and consumer rights;
- Expanding additional dispute resolution options; and
- Offering tailored resources for certain cases.
Its implementation projects includes:
- Creating a consumer debt pilot in the Dorchester neighborhood in Boston to help consumers avert financial crisis or navigate successfully through such a crisis before or after debt collection cases are brought. You can learn more by reading the Consumer Debt Pilot Summary Report located on the Massachusetts Access to Justice Commission website.
- Creating a housing pilot in Lawrence (Northeast Massachusetts) to achieve housing stability for households facing eviction before eviction complaints are filed in court.
- Shifting focus “upstream” from litigation by making key resources available to landlords and tenants before a complaint is filed to preserve tenancies where possible; and
- Creating Housing Stabilization Centers (HSCs) in targeted communities, where a landlord and tenant could access the resources needed to stabilize a tenancy and avoid the need for a court eviction action.
A Housing Pilot Summary Report is forthcoming and will be available on the Massachusetts Access to Justice Commission’s website.
Point persons: Chip Phinney (Supreme Judicial Court) and Carolyn Goodwin (Massachusetts Access to Justice Commission)