Justice for all requires a comprehensive set of resources and services that include self-help information and forms, assistance from trained professionals who are not lawyers and community partners, and legal assistance and representation by licensed lawyers. This is often referred to as a “continuum of services.” Key components include:
- Self-Help Information and Forms
- Systemwide Tirage and Referrals
- Representation from Lawyers (including brief services and limited scope representation)
- Assistance from professionals who are not lawyers and Navigators
- Community Education and Prevention
- Appropriate Alternative Dispute Resolution
Most people appearing in civil cases are self-represented. In that context, justice for all cannot be achieved without comprehensive, widely available, and user-friendly legal information and forms. Self-help information and forms also make it easier for professionals who are not lawyers and pro bono lawyers to efficiently assist individuals who would otherwise be proceeding without any help.
Key Elements
- A comprehensive, centralized, and widely available set of self-help forms, instructions, and information:
- Prioritized for areas of the law in which litigants are most likely to be self-represented, such as family law, housing law, and consumer law
- Including resources for understanding
- The applicable law
- Which courts hear which cases
- Legal processes, including process flow charts
- How to prepare and present a case at trial
- Compliance and other post-judgment issues
- Plain language definitions of legal terms
- Collaboratively developed, improved, and updated based on priorities and processes agreed to by the courts and other access to justice stakeholders
- Universally implemented and adopted (even in decentralized systems)
- Easy to find and available online, optimized for mobile viewing, and in hard copy at courthouses, self-help centers, and with other legal and community providers that assist self-represented litigants
- Materials that are accessible, user-friendly, and provided in plain language
- Automated forms that ask users a series of guided questions and use the answers to tailor additional questions and generate a customized form ready for filing (e.g., Turbo Tax ©)
- Materials informed by systematic feedback from users, community and legal providers, and self-help center staff
Strong relationships and networks are necessary to ensure that individuals with civil legal needs are directed to the appropriate information and services, regardless of where they seek help, including from community-based providers and other trusted institutions, such as food banks, libraries, and churches. Such a “no wrong door” approach requires an effective, systemwide triage and referral system that matches a person’s legal need with the appropriate resource or service. An effective triage and referral system will be easy to use for people seeking legal information and services, the community partners assisting them, and legal services providers making referrals to and from each other.
Key Elements
- A comprehensive and regularly updated inventory of existing legal resources and services that
- includes provider and service profiles with clear descriptions of services provided and intake protocols
- is widely shared among legal providers and community partners
- A centralized referral system (that may also include centralized intake) or, at a minimum, transparent and widely shared protocols for referrals to and among providers, with focused efforts on eliminating ineffective referrals that do not result in assistance
- Support for referral systems that include websites, hotlines, and email or live chat services
- A network of community partners that are supported in helping people find information about legal problems, understand options for addressing legal problems, and locate appropriate and available resources and services
- Consistent and ongoing outreach, information sharing, and cross-training among and between legal and community partners regarding the availability of relevant information and services and how to access those resources
- Community resources and services that are integrated into legal referral systems and vice versa
Justice for all demands legal representation through well-resourced and coordinated civil legal aid providers, pro bono programs, and affordable market-based options. Legal representation should include a full spectrum of services including legal advice, limited scope representation, and full representation through trial, settlement, or other final resolution of a case. Justice for all necessitates that full representation be available when the legal issue is particularly complex, where the stakes are particularly high, or where mental health, age, learning disabilities or other capacity issues impede the person’s ability to effectively use other resources and services.
Key Elements
- Coordinated programs to recruit, train, mentor, and support pro bono attorneys
- Limited scope representation (“LSR”) (assistance with discreet tasks, also referred to as brief services and unbundled legal services), that may include diagnostic services, counsel and advice, legal research, document drafting, representation in negotiations, assistance with evidence gathering and preparation, and representation in discrete courtroom appearances. Support for LSR includes:
- Adoption of rules that support the practice
- Education of the judiciary regarding the importance of LSR
- Attorney recruitment
- Training, resources, and communities of practice to support LSR attorneys
- Ongoing identification of effective and innovative pro bono, legal aid, and market-based delivery strategies
- Capacity to engage in impact litigation that increases access to justice
- Consideration of right-to-counsel initiatives in cases involving basic human needs
For many individuals without access to lawyers, self-help materials are essential but insufficient. Additional assistance may be required to help navigate individuals to the appropriate resources and materials, explain basic processes, and offer general guidance. Many of these functions can be performed by trained professionals who are not lawyers, preserving scarce and more expensive legal representation for the most complicated and consequential cases. Types of information and assistance that can be effectively provided by professionals who are not lawyers include:
- Selecting and preparing forms
- Providing relevant legal information
- Explaining basic processes, including where to go and when
- Referring for additional legal assistance and social services
- Accompanying to court
- Explaining orders and other compliance issues
Key Elements
- Staffed self-help centers
- in or near courthouses
- in the community with trusted partners
- online with remote assistance provided
- Other non-lawyer, navigator services
Coordinated community education and prevention programs ensure that community members have the legal information and services they need to understand common legal rights and responsibilities and identify and prevent legal issues before they arise or escalate into legal conflicts. Effective community education and prevention requires strong relationships with community partners and an understanding of the places that people most often go to for help with legal-related issues. Important partners often include:
- Community-based organizations, service providers, and advocates, including in the areas of housing, senior services, disability rights, domestic violence, food security, and childcare
- Health care providers
- Public benefits and social service organizations
- Schools
- Libraries
- Churches and other faith-based organizations
- Emergency responders
Key Elements
- A robust and shared understanding of where low-income individuals commonly go for information and help
- Collaborative partnerships between legal and community organizations and service providers that include:
- Consistent information sharing and cross-trainings
- Coordinated community outreach and education on legal topics frequently encountered by low-income community members
- Coordinated development of information and tools that assist in early issue identification
- Collaborative advocacy on laws, policies, and practices that increase access to justice
Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) can provide opportunities for parties to resolve legal issues outside of court. When carefully designed to include appropriate screening, ADR can allow parties to maintain more control over outcomes, weigh trade-offs, and shape key terms of the resolution. ADR can also lead to faster resolution and preserve court resources for cases that cannot be resolved by - or are not appropriate for - ADR.
Key Elements
- Plain language information about ADR options and processes
- Appropriate information about and screening for power imbalances that could lead to unjust outcomes
- Clear codes of ethics for individuals providing ADR services
- Exploration of remote access through online ADR options