Governance & Planning
An effective governance system will have an inclusive coordinating body and established processes for access to justice partners to plan, implement, and evaluate access to justice efforts. The coordinating body will perform ongoing assessments of user and community experiences and public needs.
Key Elements
- An established forum and processes for collaboration among partners
- Representation from critical legal and non-legal partners, including the courts, legal aid, the private bar, and community stakeholders
- Established expectations for governance roles and responsibilities, including participation, decision-making, and committee structures
- Commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion
- A shared understanding of working priorities and benchmarks to measure progress on those priorities
- Ongoing opportunities for sharing data, information, and expertise among and between legal providers and community partners
- Strong feedback loops with the public, service providers and other community partners, integrated into access to justice decisions
- Use of data to inform coordinated planning and decision-making including, for example:
- An inventory and profiles of traditional and non-traditional civil access to justice stakeholders (e.g., the courts, the Bar, legal aid, community partners)
- Legal needs studies
- Publicly available datasets from court, government, non-profit, and commercial sources to better understand the population characteristics and vulnerabilities in the jurisdiction
- Geospatial analyses of needs, services, and technological, social, and economic infrastructure
- Work toward general alignment about how to address gaps and efficiently and effectively distribute legal resources and services in the state
Communications & Resources
To be effective, the governance system must have sufficient resources to support the state’s collaborative priorities (in addition to the funding to support individual organizations and projects). Efforts to increase funding for access to justice often require coordinated communications and education campaigns that raise awareness about the importance of access to justice efforts, legal aid, and fairness in the civil justice system.
Key Elements
- Resources and staff capacity to support a jurisdiction’s coordinated work, including capacity for coordinated assessments, planning, and evaluation of access to justice efforts
- Coordinated efforts to fill identified gaps and increase funding for access to justice in a state
- Coordinated communications campaigns that educate the public and decision-makers about the importance of access to justice efforts, legal aid, and fairness in the civil justice system