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2 | Achieving Civil Justice: A Framework for Collaboration | Academy of Arts & Sciences (Making Justice Accessible Initiative) | 2024 | This report looks at strategies and initiatives that have been working to generate new solutions and models for service delivery. The report examines what a “people-centered” approach would entail to increase access. The work of lawyers and courts, moreover, must be paired with the help of community justice providers, law schools, and other stakeholders to improve the civil justice system. The report details innovations throughout the country to increase access to justice. | |
3 | By the Numbers: The Data Underlying Legal Aid Programs | Legal Services Corporation (LSC) | 2024 | LSC’s By the Numbers gives comprehensive data on the services offered by their grantees in the 2023 calendar year. The report analyzes data related to the total revenue and expenditures of the organizations that received grants from LSC, the types of grants they received, the services they offered, and the rates at which private attorneys contributed their services. It also mentions pertinent characteristics of both clients and sta, noting how many people were eligible for LSC’s aid in 2023, the most common civil legal issues these individuals faced, and aspects of their identity informing these needs, such as their racial/ethnic background or veteran status. Overall, this report presents information about the national need for civil legal aid, the aggregate impact of the organizations working to address these needs, and the attributes or specific needs of the individuals they are working to help. | |
4 | Generative AI and Legal Aid: Results from a Field Study and 100 Use Cases to Bridge the Access to Justice Gap | UC Berkeley School of Law | 2024 | This paper seeks to discover how AI tools can be used to address the access to justice gap—the millions of low-income Americans that lack adequate legal assistance for 90% of their civil legal problems. It finds that generative AI tools can significantly enhance legal professionals and narrow the justice gap, but that how they are introduced matter. Though women comprise the majority of public interest lawyers, organic uptake of generative AI was much higher among men in the study. | |
5 | Research Advancing Justice Annual Report 2023 | American Bar Association (ABA) | 2024 | This annual report from the ABA highlights its mission to conduct interdisciplinary research on the intersection of law and society in fostering a just and equitable world. It includes updates on important projects such as the "After the JD" study and grants received for access to justice initiatives. The report also mentions leadership transitions, new research publications, and the funding sources that supports ABA. | |
6 | By the Numbers: The Data Underlying Legal Aid Programs | LSC | 2023 | LSC’s By the Numbers provides comprehensive data on the services offered by LSC's 132 grantees in 2022, including information on client demographics, program staffing, revenue, expenses, and private attorney involvement, either on a pro bono basis or for compensation, in serving the grantees' clients. They also offer trend data at the national and state level to enable comparisons over time as well as across service areas, states and territories, and regions. | |
7 | Justice System Metrics | American Bar Association Center for Innovation | 2023 | The goal of this page is to develop a dynamic website that offers a comprehensive list of metrics crucial for analyzing the legal system's effectiveness. The website will also provide examples of how institutions, researchers, and innovators utilize data and metrics to gain insight into the legal profession and drive progress. | |
8 | Profile of the Legal Profession | American Bar Association (ABA) | 2023 | While it includes information on other topics, the report features a section seeking to answer the question of: How many paid legal aid lawyers are there across the country, and where do they work? The report provides a snapshot of the country's civil legal aid landscape. It found that there are more than 10,000 paid legal aid lawyers in the country (and notes that this is far too few). | |
9 | Civil Justice Data Commons | Georgetown | 2022 | Repository of civil legal data that focuses on evictions and consumer debt cases. | |
10 | The Justice Gap: Measuring the Unmet Civil Legal Needs of Low-income Americans | Legal Services Corporation (LSC) | 2022 | LSC's national report regarding civil legal needs and the degree to which those needs are being met by the legal safety net and market. | |
11 | Community Navigators: The Role of Community Navigators to Reduce Poverty and Expand Access to Justice | Legal Link | 2022 | Describes the important role that community navigators within the access-to-justice spectrum. | |
12 | By the Numbers: The Data Underlying Legal Aid Programs | LSC | 2021 | Seminal overview of nationally-collected data on the impact of civil legal services. | |
13 | Grasping the Justice Gap: Opportunities and Challenges for People-Centered Justice Data | World Justice Project & Pathfinders | 2021 | Describes the role of data in advancing access-to-justice efforts. | |
14 | The Justice Index | National Center for Access to Justice (NCAJ) | 2021 | The Justice Index provides rankings and analysis by jurisdiction of how successfully each place has adopted best practices for ensuring access to justice. NCAJ looks at four central policy areas: attorney access, support for self-represented litigants, language access, and disability access. These four policy areas were selected because NCAJ considers them to be key policy areas that every state should have in place to ensure meaningful access to justice. | |
15 | Justice Needs and Satisfaction in the United States of America | The Hague Institute for Innovation of Law & the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System | 2021 | Like LSC's report, this is another national study of access to justice and the justice gap based on survey data. | |
16 | Civil Justice for All | Making Justice Accessible Initiative | 2021 | The report stems from the American Academy's Making Justice Accessible project focusing on four common categories of civil legal problems, and advances seven recommendations for closing the justice gap on a national level. The seven recommendations are (1) increase investment including financial and human resources, (2) increase the number of legal services lawyers, (3) increase the number of pro bono lawyers, (4) use other advocates, not just lawyers, to help, (5) foster greater collaboration among legal service providers, (6) expand efforts to make legal systems easier, and (7) create a national team. | |
17 | Invisible & Inaccessible: Young People’s Perceptions of Civil Legal Aid | Legal Counsel for Youth and Children | 2021 | This report highlights the perception and experiences of young people of color in King County regarding their knowledge (or lack thereof) about civil legal services. With the use of a survey and two focus groups, the report made four recommendations: (1) make civil legal aid more visible and accessible to young people by increasing community engagement and partnerships, (2) strengthen community knowledge around civil legal issues and resources, (3) increase intentional learning for white attorneys, and (4) fund more civil legal aid attorneys of color to work with young people. | |
18 | Justice Determinants of Wellbeing | The Full Frame Initiative | 2021 | The Wellbeing Blueprint seeks to assist advocates for a fairer, more just civil legal system. Advocates can utilize the blueprint as part of their work to transform the civil legal system to advance equity and justice. This is achieved by removing barriers, reducing inequities, and focusing on wellbeing. | |
19 | Access to Justice in the Age of COVID-19 | LAIR | 2021 | Focusing on the impact of COVID 19 on access-to-justice issues, this report illuminates how the federal government can support access through funding, collaboration between agencies, and strategic partnerships. | |
20 | Sargent Shriver Civil Counsel Act: Report to the Legislature | Judicial Council of California (with NPC Research) | 2020 | As one of the most comprehensive and direct studies of the provision of legal services, this canonical report provides important evidence regarding the impact of legal aid. | |
21 | Civil Justice for All: A Report and Recommendations from the Making Justice Accessible Initiative | American Academy of Arts & Sciences | 2020 | Gives a national overview of the crisis in legal services by concentrating on common categories of civil legal problems. | |
22 | The California Justice Gap: Measuring the Unmet Civil Legal Needs of Californians | The State Bar of California | 2019 | This study explores Californians' experience with a host of civil legal issues, whether they sought legal help, the kinds of help they received, why they may have decided not to seek help, and how they feel about the resolution they experienced. This report highest four key findings: (1) Californians received no or inadequate help for 85% of civil legal problems they faced in the past year, (2) Californianas did not seek or receive help due to lack of knowledge of the civil legal system like uncertainty whether their problem was a legal issue and concerns about cost, (3) only 22% of those who seek legal aid will be partially served and 41% will not be served at all due, in part, to the organizations' insufficient resources, and (4) the proportion of problems for which low-income Californians receive no or inadequate legal help is similar to the national average among low-income Americans. | |
23 | Access to Justice | Lincoln Caplan, Lance Liebman, & Rebecca Sandefur, et al. (Dædalus: Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences) | 2019 | That is why this issue of Dædalus and the American Academy’s project on Making Justice Accessible are so important. This issue focuses on gathering information regarding the need to improve access to legal help. It studies innovations piloted around the country and provides a set of national recommendations for closing the justice gap between supply and demand for legal services. | |
24 | Judicial Council Report to the Legislature: Sargent Shriver Civil Counsel Act | Judicial Council of California (with NPC Research) | 2017 | This report on the impact of the Shriver programs provides one of the most comprehensive evaluations of the provision of legal services. | |
25 | The Justice Gap: Measuring the Unmet Civil Legal Needs of Low-income Americans | LSC | 2017 | This report uses the data from the 2017 Justice Gap Measurement Survey. The report presents three key findings: (1) 86% of the civil legal problems faced by low-income Americans in a given year receive inadequate or no legal help, (2) of the estimated 1.7 million civil legal problems for which low-income Americans seek LSC-funded legal aid, 1.0 to 1.2 million receive inadequate or no legal assistance, and (3) low-income Americans will likely not get their legal needs fully met for between 907k and 1.2 million civil legal problems that they bring to LSC-funded legal aid programs, due to limited resources among LSC grantees. This results in the vast majority of all of the problems receiving limited or no legal assistance from LSC grantees. | |
26 | Access Across America: First Report of the Civil Justice Infrastructure Mapping Project | Rebecca L. Sandefur & Aaron C. Smyth | 2011 | Provides a jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction look at the civil legal services available across the country, including who is eligible for free civil legal information, advice or representation (civil legal assistance services); how those civil legal services are produced and delivered; how eligible people find and use those services; how civil legal aid is funded; how civil legal aid is coordinated; and how both no-fee and fee-generating limited-scope civil legal services are regulated. | |
27 | In Pursuit of Justice? Case Outcomes and the Delivery of Unbundled Legal Services | Jessica K. Steinberg (Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law & Policy) | 2011 | Examination of unbundled legal services as a mode of delivery in regard to case outcomes. | |
28 | If We Don't Get Civil Gideon: Trying to Make the Best of the Civil-Justice Market | Thomas D. Rowe Jr. (Fordham Urban Law Journal) | 2010 | Looks at "market-oriented" solutions to access-to-justice issues. | |
29 | The Impact of Counsel: An Analysis of Empirical Evidence | Rebecca L. Sandefur (Seattle Journal for Social Justice) | 2010 | Uses empirical evidence to make the case for why access to counsel is important. | |
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2 | Legal Tech Blueprint Report | Harbor Global (Present to the State Bar of California) | 2025 | ||
3 | Economic Impact of Civil Legal Aid Brief | Legal Services Corporation (LSC) | 2025 | ||
4 | Increasing Access to Justice Through Community Justice Workers: A Proposal for California | The Legal Aid Association of California (LAAC) convened a working group, led by Legal Link and OneJustice, with advice and support from Stanford Law School’s Deborah L. Rhode Center on the Legal Profession and Frontline Justice, composed of leaders from California’s legal aid organizations. This proposal is the work product of that working group. | 2025 | Discussions over the last six months focused on expanding the reach and impact of legal aid organizations by allowing nonlawyer staff and community members, with attorney training and supervision, to independently do discrete legal procedures for which there is a deep and unmet need. This would require authorization to perform a limited range of activities which could fall within the scope of the practice of law. We are thrilled to share our CJW proposal for California, which would allow legal aid organizations to extend and expand on their work for the lowest-income Californians using a CJW model, as many other states are now doing. The proposal describes a framework for California legal aid organizations seeking to certify individual Community Justice Workers who will serve under the supervision of their attorneys. This is not a proposal for specific projects; rather, it is a proposal for an authorization and oversight framework for a California CJW program in which legal aid organizations across the state can choose to participate. The proposal seeks to streamline the process for groups already under IOLTA review and scrutiny, while allowing other organizations to enter the CJW Program should they meet a set of requirements. Our group is hopeful that our efforts to innovate and provide deeply needed services in a safe and measured way are embraced and carried forward. | |
5 | Conference on Access to Justice in California: Challenges and Policy Innovations | Lucy Ricca & Eric Helland (RAND Institute for Civil Justice and Stanford Law School) | 2024 | This publications seeks to summarize the discussion that took place during a day-long conference in Santa Monica, titled "Access to Justice in California: Challenges and Policy Innovations" that was co-sponsored by the RAND Institute for Civil Justice, the Deborah L. Rhode Center on the Legal Profession at Stanford Law School, the Program on Legal Ethics and the Profession at the UCLA School of Law, and the Civil Justice Research Initiative at Berkeley Law. The conference focused on engaging California leaders to examine the breadth and depth of the access to justice crisis, prospective ways to increase access, and generate steps that can be taken to promote meaningful access to California’s courts. | |
6 | County Legal Needs | Wesleyan Undergraduate Students Macy Miller and Ben Shifrel | 2024 | This interactive map serves as a tool for LAAC to assess and address the civil legal needs of California's counties. It presents county-specific data, such as legal issues, poverty levels, and linguistic diversity in an accessible format to help legal aid organizations tailor their services and outreach efforts effectively. | |
7 | County-Based Needs Assessment Toolkit | Wesleyan Undergraduate Students Ava Becker, Margaret Melcher, and Gabriela Tejada | 2024 | The students created a County-Based Needs Assessment Toolkit for LAAC. The group made a fact sheet for each of California’s 58 counties with information that could help legal aid organizations in their outreach efforts. The fact sheets included information and statistics on each county including its top legal issues/needs, the percentage of the population living below the poverty level, the percentage of the population that has basic internet access (defined as internet with 25+ Mbps), the percentage of the county categorized as rural, the percentage of the population experiencing homelessness, the percentage of the population that identifies as Indigenous, and statistics on linguistic diversity (which translated to “% of non-English Speakers” on our spreadsheet). They also included relevant local resources for members of these communities, such as homelessness services and shelters, and Tribal resources whether that be for health, school, or foster care. | |
8 | How Can Legal Assistance Providers Better Meet the Needs of Black Older Adults? | National Center on Law & Elder Rights (NCLER) Issue Brief (Denny Chan, Sarah Galvan, Vivianne Mbaku, and Archie Roundtree, Justice in Aging) | 2024 | Describes the complexities of providing legal assistance to older adults, with a lens toward the diversity of older adults and their communities. A "one-size-fits-all" approach cannot take into account the unique or disproportionate legalissues faced by different communities and, here in particular, Black older adults. This Issue Brief looks at the most pressing legal issues impacting Black older adults and encourages legal services organizations to "becomeexpert in solving the legal issues that most impact this community and cause the most harm" while also being sure to "develop outreach and partnership strategies to ensure that services are delivered with a community-driven approach." | |
9 | 2023 Diversity Report Card | The State Bar of California | 2024 | Provides information on the demographic composition of California's attorneys, including nonprofits, which tend to be more diverse. | |
10 | What Draws Attorneys to Child Welfare Practice? Questions to Inform Attorney Retention and Recruitment Strategies | American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law | 2024 | This discussion guide provides tips on what questions attorney managers and leadership can ask to help understand why attorneys joined the child welfare field. The guide explains that sustaining attorney's' motivations and commitment to the field over time is critical to retaining them, and recruiting new attorneys. The guide also advises on how advocates should best express that increased funding can help recruit and retain a high-caliber legal team. | |
11 | Needs Assessment Report 2022-23 | Legal Action of Wisconsin & Judicare Legal Aid | 2023 | Conducted by the Legal Action of Wisconsin and Judicare Legal Aid, the report contains three parts: secondary data and demographics, primary research and analysis, and strategic recommendations and research limitations. It aims to compile information that may be useful to other organizations and groups serving the people in Wisconsin who are experiencing poverty. | |
12 | Economic Impact of Civil Legal Aid in Wisconsin | The Resource for Great Programs | 2023 | The report details the economic impact of Civil Legal Aid in Wisconsin: it generated combined economic impact of $176 million, representing an 8.4-to-1 return on the total funding they received in 2021. | |
13 | 2022 Diversity Report Card | The State Bar of California | 2023 | Provides information on the demographic composition of California's attorneys, including nonprofits, which tend to be more diverse. | |
14 | The Impact of COVID-19 on California Legal Services Organizations: Lessons-Learned & Innovations | Stanford Law School’s Levin Center for Public Service and Public Interest Law (Diane T. Chin, Bridget Morrison, Sherah Tan, and Michael Winn) | 2022 | Working with LAAC, Stanford Law School’s Levin Center for Public Service and Public Interest Law surveyed legal aid organizations about the impact of the pandemic on clients and the workplace. The primary areas of focus for the survey and report are (1) adaptations to internal policies and (2) adaptations to reaching and serving clients. Trends include greater adoption of hybrid work environments, more out-of-state remote work, and more support for wellness. | |
15 | Patching the Patchwork: Moving the Civil Right to Counsel Forward With Key Data | Maria Roumiantseva | 2022 | While focused on eviction, this article provides interesting information on intereventions other than full representation, and more. | |
16 | Social Economic Impact and Social Return on Funding Investment | Michigan's Legal Aid Organizations | 2022 | Looks at the social value of services provided in 2019 and 2020 by Michigan legal aid nonprofits. The social value evaluated includes not just the immediate value but also the long-term consequences of the services, such as savings in community support costs and reductions in community medical care expenses. Between 2019-2020, there was a 669% return on investment. | |
17 | Social Work Practices in California Legal Aid Organizations | Legal Aid Association of California (LAAC) and OneJustice | 2021 | The main goals of this survey and report were to (1) map social work practices (measuring how many organizations include social work services) and (2) provide models for social work practices (gather information about the composition of such services). | |
18 | “Working With Your Hands Tied Behind Your Back”: Non-Lawyer Perspectives on Legal Empowerment | National Center for Access to Justice (NCAJ) | 2021 | Based on over 60 interviews with people who often work with people with legal issues (e.g., librarians, social workers, community organizers), this report brings together different perspectives on access to justice. | |
19 | A Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and Racial Justice Toolkit for Civil Legal Aid Organizations | LAAC | 2021 | The IDEAL Toolkit exists as a resource for pursuing DEI and Racial Justice work. We aspire to have it live as an active document to ultimately encompass varying policies, models, and procedures that uplift and support DEI/Racial Justice work in our organizations. | |
20 | Foundations Hiring Guide | Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System | 2021 | The guide provides a lens to understand hiring and retaining lawyers, including their Whole Lawyer approach and their Model Learning Outcomes (produced in collaboration with Columbia and other law schools). | |
21 | The Economic Impact and Social Return on Investment of Civil Legal Aid Services in the State of Louisiana | Louisiana Bar Foundation | 2020 | ROI study of legal aid in Louisiana. | |
22 | Justice at Risk: Recruitment and Retention Report | LAAC | 2020 | A comprehensive report on recruitment and retention in legal aid. Important findings include those pertaining to salaries, reasons why people are leaving for other legal sectors, educational debt, and more. | |
23 | Public Interest Drift: Findings from the 2019 California Law Student Survey | The State Bar of California | 2019 | Reports on a survey and focus groups with law students regarding "public interest drift," which is the phenomenon whereby students originally interested in public interest law "drift" toward other, higher paying positions, such as in firms. Key issues include salaries and debt. | |
24 | Making a Difference: California Legal Aid | The State Bar of California | 2019 | A comprehensive study of the impact of legal aid in California based on outcomes data provided by grantees to the Bar. | |
25 | Return on Investment in Civil Justice Services and Programs | Canadian Forum on Civil Justice | 2019 | A selected annotated bibliography of existing research on the ROI of legal aid. | |
26 | Return On Investment of Civil Legal Aid In Delaware | Combined Campaign for Justice | 2018 | A Social Return on Investment study in Delaware finding that every $1 investment in legal aid returns $7.23 in economic benefit. | |
27 | Social Return on Investment | Open Door Legal | 2016 | Looks at the fact that legal aid provides a high social return on investment. | |
28 | Economic Impacts of Civil Legal Aid Organizations in Florida | The Resource for Great Programs (with the Florida Bar Foundation) | 2016 | Describes the economic benefits of legal aid. | |
29 | Alabama Legal Aid Social Return on Investment | Community Services Analysis | 2015 | Looks at the ROI of legal aid in Alabama. In fiscal year 2014 the South Alabama Volunteer Lawyers Program lawyers and paralegals provided assistance to more than 1,000 people and delivered approximately $2 million in total value to the community. | |
30 | The Economic Impact to the State of North Carolina of Civil Legal Services in 2012 | North Carolina Equal Access to Justice Commission | 2014 | Looks at the ROI of legal aid in North Carolina. In 2012, Legal Aid of North Carolina (LANC), Legal Services of Southern Piedmont (LSSP), and Pisgah Legal Services' financial impact on the North Carolina economy totaled to about $49 million. This means that for every dollar spent by North Carolina to provide legal services, nearly $10 flowed into the economy, for an ROI of 108%. | |
31 | The Economic Impact of Iowa Legal Aid | Iowa Legal Aid | 2013 | Looks at the economic benefits of legal aid in Iowa. In 2011, Iowa Legal Aid’s financial impact on the Iowa economy totaled to about $29 million. This means that for every dollar spent by Iowa to provide legal services, nearly $7 flowed into the economy. | |
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2 | Access to Justice through Data and Research: A People-Centered Approach to Evidence-Based Policymaking by the Federal Government | Legal Aid Interagency Roundtable (LAIR) | 2024 | This report looks at key data challenges (such as the availability of federal government data, data between agencies, etc.) and examines the actual ways that federal agencies are working collaboratively to fix these issues and generate new areas of data collection related to their access-to-justice efforts. | |
3 | Virtual Justice: A complex portrait of Canadian self-represented litigant experiences with virtual hearings | National Self-Represented Litigants Project (NSRLP) | 2024 | This report seeks to center the voices of self-represented litigants (SRLs) in the "modernization" of the justice system through the use of new technologies such as virtual hearings. Using surveys and focus groups, this report finds that SRLs' experiences with virtual hearings are varied, and therefore there is a need to adopt certain immediate steps to strengthen SRLs' abilities to participate in virtual settings. | |
4 | Civil Legal Counsel Projects Program (CLCPP) Evaluation | Civil Legal Counsel Projects Program (CLCPP) | 2024 | This report features the aggregated results of the CLCPP Service Data collection and summarizes the its network activities. It details CLCPP's provision of legal assistance to low-income residents of Washington, DC facing eviction or loss of housing subsidies, reflecting on the clients served, services provided, and outcomes achieved by the full CLCPP network. The report also contains a summary of key themes heard from CLCPP partners during interviews and the study results to date, offering a few recommendations for program improvement. | |
5 | Measuring Matters | Canadian Forum on Civil Justice | 2023 | Empirical legal research is essential in comprehending the unfulfilled legal needs of society. Legal need surveys offer valuable insights into the legal issues faced by the public and the actions taken to address them. In Canada, a data-driven understanding of the connection between legal service interventions and their outcomes and impacts is vital to track progress over time. | |
6 | 2022-23 Alberta Legal Needs Assessment: What We Learned So Far | Alberta Law Foundation | 2023 | This community-based legal needs assessment was performed in 2022 in Alberta. The goal was to help with knowledge sharing in the justice sector and inform grant-making. | |
7 | California Legal Aid Data and Evaluation Landscape | LAAC | 2023 | This survey and report on data and evaluation trends in the legal aid sector seeks to provide a snapshot of what organizations are doing, what's working, and what they want to be doing when it comes to gathering, using, and reporting on data and outcomes. | |
8 | Toolkit for Surveying Older Adults | Contra Costa Senior Legal Services | 2023 | The CCSLS "Older Adult Community Survey" collects quantifiable data on accessing legal services from adults aged 60+ who live in Contra Costa County. This toolkit includes a summary of the survey methods, analytics, and reporting approach. It also provides recommendations for other legal aid associations to consider when conducting similar surveys in the future, and includes copies of the survey questions, outreach flyer, and report brief. The survey questions are provided in English and Spanish, and the report brief is provided in English, Spanish and Chinese. | |
9 | 2023 Data & Evaluation Toolkit | Legal Services National Technology Assistance Project | 2023 | This toolkit provides an overview of data analysis for legal aid providers who want to make greater use of data at their organization. The toolkit is broken out into the following sections: (1) Overview of Data Analysis Projects, (2) Defining the Analysis, (3) Collecting the Data, (4) Preparing and Analyzing the Data, (5) Presenting and Learning from the Data, (6) Building a Strong Data Culture, (7) Overview of Evaluations, and (8) Data Analysis Project Examples. | |
10 | Outcomes Catalog | LSC | 2022 | This page provides a list of sample client outcomes for legal aid organizations to consider as they work to define, collect, and report on their program's effectiveness. The list was developed after surveying states, grantees, and other organizations that currently track outcomes from legal services. | |
11 | Measuring Civil Justice for All What Do We Know? What Do We Need to Know? How Can We Know It? | American Academy of Arts & Sciences | 2021 | This white paper provides information on measuring civil justice access, including a research agenda. | |
12 | MAP x GAP Report - Strategies for User-Informed Legal Design | Michigan Advocacy Program & Graphic Advocacy Project | 2021 | This best practices guide provides information on how to utilize UX design principles in the legal aid community. The guide provides some information on their Technology Innovation Grant (TIG)-funded project of coordinating and providing resources to the legal aid community, along with a practical guide, which includes helpful information on engaging in UX design. | |
13 | Co-Developing a Pro Bono Outcomes Framework: A Synthesis | Kristen Sonday | 2021 | This report analyzes how a sample of pro bono and justice community about how they measure and think about pro bono outcomes and develop a strong framework that is built on client-centered metrics. The study finds that a high-impact and actionable pro bono outcomes framework must: (1) enable an understanding pro bono's effectiveness and efficiency, (2) minimize the burden of outcome reporting for clients, (3) take a client-centric approach to outcome measurement that focuses on client and procedural outcomes. | |
14 | Tracking Client Outcomes: A Qualitative Assessment of Civil Legal Aid’s Use of Outcomes Data, With Recommendations | David Udell & Amy Widman (Cardozo J. Equal Rights & Social Justice) | 2020 | Describes the role of data collection in a context of under-funding for civil legal aid (including for tracking data) and overemphasis on "outputs" (e.g., number of cases) versus "outcomes" (e.g., the results obtained by a client). Better data achieved by focusing on outcomes as well as outputs, to the authors, has a few pivotal functions: to help organizations understand the impact of their work, to make their work more impactful, and to describe that impact to stakeholders. They recommend: utilizing outcomes data, connecting that data to "big goals" like client safety or stability, and linking outcomes data with other data to tell larger stories about legal aid's impact. | |
15 | Tracking Outcomes: A Guide for Civil Legal Aid Providers & Funders | NCAJ | 2018 | This study promotes the use of outcomes data by legal aid programs to enable the impacts achieved through their work, to improve the quality of their work and to help explain the value of their work to the public. The report identifies three recommendations (1) to unlock the potential of outcomes data today a program can use existing outcome data to deepen understanding, improve service, and educate the public and move to "big goals" and client-centered measure to report outcomes, (2) pursue solutions to harder challenges in tracking outcomes by partnering with courts to improve outcomes data and support holistic service by tracking outcomes, and (3) preserve the integrity of outcomes data at all times by managing the challenge of proving causation. | |
16 | BayLegal Economic Benefits Grid | Bay Area Legal Aid | 2017 | A useful grid that includes potential outputs and outcomes | |
17 | Data Playbook | Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation | 2016 | This is a resource intended to help organizations harness the power of data to make smarter decisions, gain new insights and accelerate progress for the collective good of communities. The Data Playbook walks through (1) What Data to Collect, (2) How to Collect Data, (3) Making Meaning or Analyzing the Data, and (4) Communicating Results. Lastly, it contains a toolkit which provides links to further resources for collecting, analyzing and communicating data. | |
18 | The Advocacy Strategy Framework: A tool for articulating an advocacy theory of change | Center for Evaluation Innovation (Julia Coffman & Tanya Beer) | 2015 | This provides a framework for thinking about advocacy strategies. First, the framework considers three target audiences (the public, influencers, and decisionmakers) against the changes desired (awareness, will, and action) from those audiences. Then, the framework proposes six questions that advocates should work through to better articulate their theory of change. | |
19 | Getting Started: A Self-directed Guide to Outcome Map Development | ORS Impact | 2014 | This provides a guide for thinking about advocacy strategies. Part 1 outlines the approach for developing a theory of change outcome map, including defining the opportunity and determining the timeframe and stakeholders to involve in the process. Part 2 identifies needs, purposes, frames for communication and evaluation, including identifying audiences, vantage point(s), and priorities to highlight. Part 3 designs a theory of change outcome map, including identifying goals, strategies, and interim outcomes. | |
20 | The Limits of Unbundled Legal Assistance: A Randomized Study in a Massachusetts District Court and Prospects for the Future | D. James Greiner et al. (Harvard Law Review) | 2013 | In a randomized study of people facing housing eviction, everyone in the study received limited assistance, including instruction on the eviction process as well as help in filling out answer and discovery request forms. After receiving this “unbundled” assistance, members of a randomly selected treated group were offered a traditional attorney-client relationship from a legal aid provider staff attorney; members of the remaining randomly selected control group received no such offer. Approximately two-thirds of occupants in the treated group, verses about one-third of occupants in the control group, retained possession of their units at the end of litigation, and treated-group occupants received payments or rent waivers worth on average a net of 9.4 months of rent per case, versus 1.9 months of rent per case in the control group. This article discusses the study and possible reasons for the magnitude of the differences between the outcomes experienced by the treated and control groups. | |
21 | Using Data to Better Meet the Needs of Clients and to Inform Strategic Resource Allocation Decisions | Gregg G. Van Ryzin & Marianne Engelman Lado (Fordham Law Review) | 2011 | The report discusses the uses of data by the legal aid org to better serve their clients and to allocate their limited resources in a way that maximizes the benefit they provide within their client community. They then use the data to analyze case and regional trends and depict the results in compelling, easy-to-understand visuals for their staff, Board, funders, and partner organizations. They analyze and share the data to inspire their advocacy efforts and to encourage increased outside funding support for their work. Their project includes tracking progress towards achieving strategic goals, measuring intake and case volume and associated legal problems, tracking the levels of legal services they provide, identifying trends in the cases and clients they cannot service, analyze client demographic trends in comparison to regial demographic trends for low-income people, Gauging legal problem-specific case outcomes and financial outcomes, track client survey feedback regarding the effectiveness of their services, and form partnerships with organization that have their own robust data regarding low-income people. | |
22 | How Do We Build the Capacity of Nonprofits to Evaluate, Learn and Improve? | Grantmakers for Effective Organizations | 2011 | Describes the ways in which evaluation trends have moved away from compliance and toward impact. | |
23 | Logic Model Workbook | Innovation Network | 2010 | A workbook designed to kickstart the creation of a logic model. | |
24 | A User’s Guide to Advocacy Evaluation Planning | Harvard Family Research Project (Julia Coffman) | 2009 | A tool used to evaluate advocacy efforts. It can be used to determine which outcomes and methods are most relevant or appropriate in an advocacy and policy context. The tool helps users (1) identify how the evaluation will be used and who will use it to ensure the evaluation delivers the right kind of information when it is needed, (2) map the strategy being evaluated to illustrate how activities lead to policy-related outcomes, (3) prioritize the components that are most essential for the evaluation to make sure the evaluation is resource-efficient and manageable, and (4) identify measures and methods that signal whether advocacy strategy elements have been successfully implemented or achieved. | |
25 | Developing Process Evaluation Questions | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | 2009 | A tool to define and develop evaluation questions. It also provides example process evaluation questions. | |
26 | Integrating the Strategic Plan, Logic Model, and Workplan | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | 2008 | A tool to (1) define strategic plan, logic model, and workplan, (2) describe how they are related, (3) suggest how people can visually link them, and (4) explain why linking them is beneficial. This type of planning helps to determine what objectives a program intends to accomplish and how these objectives will be accomplished. It also provides ways to measure accomplishment. | |
27 | Evaluation Plan Workbook | Innovation Network | 2005 | A workbook designed to aid in evaluation planning. | |
28 | Learning As We Go: Making Evaluation Work for Everyone | TCC Group (Peter York) | 2003 | Speaks to the role of evaluation in organizational capacity building and what evaluative learning means. | |
29 | Ways to Improve the Quality of Your Program Evaluations | University of Wisconsin | 2002 | Tips on improving program evaluations. A good program evaluation is focused on utility, feasibility, propriety and accuracy. This tool provides questions for people to consider when planning, conducting and reviewing program evaluations. | |
30 | Assessment of Systems for Delivering Legal Services | Andy Scherer (Fordham Law Review) | 1999 | This study claims that assessment and evaluation are necessary components of efforts to improve the ability of legal services delivery systems to fulfil the mission of achieving equal and full access to justice. The goals of the assessment should improve the delivery of legal services by addressing the concerns related to local and national system program design, improve quality of client services, and improve leadership/management/admin. The study also suggests that assessment should involve participation from a wide range of stakeholders and that again the methodology should include local and national systems. | |
31 | Evaluating Systems for Delivering Legal Service to the Poor: Conceptual and Methodological Considerations | Gregg G. Van Ryzin & Marianne Engelman Lado (in Fordham Law Review) | 1999 | The article suggest that research and evaluation enables program administrators and staff to improve program performance and that it is credible and communicable to funders, policy makers, and other stakeholders. Before addressing how to evaluate the report suggests establishing several important conceptual questions first like who are the stakeholders, what are the goals and objectives of the program, and assessment of outcomes or cost effectiveness. Then, a program can focus on the tools and techniques for gathering data and making conclusions like analyzing existing data, focus groups, surveys, and experiments. | |
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2 | Enhancing Trust and Reducing Threat: Evidence from Courts on Three Levers of Change | Equity Accelerator & Indiana University (Victor Quintanilla et al.) | 2025 | ||
3 | Down the Drain: Payday Lenders Take $2.4 Billion in Fees from Borrowers in One Year | Center for Responsible Lending (Lucia Constantine, Senior Researcher Yasmin Farahi, Deputy Director of State Policy & Senior Policy Counsel) | 2025 | ||
4 | Supporting Justice V: A Report on the Pro Bono Work of America's Lawyers | American Bar Association, Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service | 2024 | ||
5 | Making ODR More Accessible to Self-Represented Parties: Focus Group Perspectives | RSI | 2024 | Study of online dispute resolution (ODR) programs. RSI engated in a series of six focus groups to learn about barriers to ODR and how to more effectively use them. | |
6 | User Testing Toolkit Improving Court Usability and Access: A Toolkit for Inclusive and Effective User Testing | National Center for State Courts (NCSC) | 2024 | Provides readers with a guide to assist court staff, legal aid organizations, self-help centers, and other stakeholders in conducting user testing for court user resources. | |
7 | Ability to Pay: Closing the Access to Justice Gap with Policy Solutions for Unaffordable Fines and Fees | Lauren Jones (National Center for Access to Justice) | 2024 | Speaks to policy solutions for fines and fees. | |
8 | Supporting Equitable Community Engagement: A Resource for State Health Departments | ChangeLab Solutions | 2024 | The purpose of this guide is to speak to state-level actions that can support equitable community engagement to develop laws and policies that both address SDOH and advance health equity. | |
9 | More Paper in California: An Evaluation of Documentation Reforms in State Court | Abhay Aneja, Julia Byeon, & Jacqueline Cope et al. (Debt Collection Lab) | 2024 | Describes the impact that the California Fair Debt Buying Practices Act (CFDBPA) (2014) had on court outcomes between 2011 and 2020. | |
10 | California Debt Collection Lawsuits, Geography, Credit, and Race/Ethnicity: An Exploration | Dalié Jiménez, Claire Johnson Raba, & Madeleine G. Larock et al. (Debt Collection Lab) | 2024 | The report examines data from court records, the Census, and other sources to understand the intersection of race, income, education, and household composition with case outcomes in debt collection cases. The findings indicate that, disproportionately, those in marginalized communities face debt collection cases. This, in turn, speaks to why and how courts and advocates can improve service delivery. While income differences are a factor in the disparity, they do not fully explain the differences along racial and ethnic lines. This leads the authors to find that there are other factors, like discrimination and systemic issues, that are relevant. While Californians in zip codes where 67% of the population identifies as Latinx have some of the lowest number of collection account on their credit reports on average, they are sued in debt collection cases at rates more than twice as high as White populations. Consumers are often unable to file a response: Just 6% overall in the study period were able to do so. This is consistent with other work around the $225 answer fee. Filing a response is critical because it stops the entry of a default judgment and gives the defendant more time to settle. Response rates also vary by race, such that individuals identified as Asian responded in around 8% of the cases, while those identifying as Latinx responded in just under 5%. 70% of cases where a defendant was served ended in default judgment, but this also varies by race, such that it was 74% for Black defendants and 67% for White defendants. This is important for strategy around service delivery. The authors conclude that debt collection reform is absolutely necessary, showing how communities are harmed by debt collection cases. They recommend ways that courts can and must improve outreach and plain-language communication with defendants. | |
11 | Pay to Plead: Finding Unfairness and Abusive Practicesin California Debt Collection Cases | Claire Johnson Raba & Dalié Jiménez | 2024 (revised) | The article entails reporting on one of the largest studies of debt collection lawsuits. In the study, the researchers collected and analyzed more than 2 million court records from 16 counties in California over eleven years, and representing 80% of the state's population. 90% of these cases ended without the defendant's participation. Those who participate in the case experience better outcomes. However, California charges a defendant at least $225 to participate in the case no matter how much the plaintiff is seeking, which is an unnecessary barrier. There is a process to get a waiver but it is complex. Debtors can therefore often be impeded by procedural complexities and fees to participate. The authors ultimately contend that debt collection processes need to be reformed to allow consumers to assert their rights and increase access to justice, which must include getting rid of answer fees. | |
12 | First Judicial Circuit Remote Appearance Project | Access to Justice (Illinois Supreme Court Commission) | 2024 | This report reviews the impact of remote hearings in Illinois. Land of Lincoln, a Legal Services Corporation, funded green Pilot program offering legal services to low-income and senior residents of central and southern Illinois, including the 1st Circuit. The report finds that remote court appearances can meaningfully increase the capacity of lawyers to help more clients. | |
13 | People-Centered Access to Justice Research: A Global Perspective | Justice Data Observatory | 2023 | Seeks to understand the landscape of "people-centered" access-to-justice research using three data sources, including cross-national datasets, interviews with experts, and a literature search. | |
14 | Creating a People-First Court Data Framework | Professor Charlotte Alexander & Professor Lauren Sudeall (Vanderbilt University Law School) | 2023 | Articulates a vision for reorienting court data to be “people-first” in the sense that it is restructured to focus on the perspective of the people who interact with the courts, not just the courts themselves. | |
15 | 2023 State of the State Courts – National Survey Analysis | NCSC | 2023 | This survey of public opinion looks into public trust and confidence in the courts, along with other related topics. | |
16 | Access to Justice through Simplification: A Roadmap for People-Centered Simplification of Federal Government Forms, Processes, and Language | Legal Aid Interagency Roundtable (LAIR) | 2023 | The report discusses simplifying federal government forms and processes to minimize the need for individuals to seek legal help. | |
17 | Access to Justice in Federal Administrative Proceedings: Nonlawyer Assistance and Other Strategies | LAIR | 2023 | This report highlights member agencies' efforts to improve access to their administrative proceedings and promotes best practices for further expansion and improvement. | |
18 | Nonlawyer Navigators in State Courts: Part II - An Update | Mary E. McClymont (Georgetown Justice Lab) | 2023 | This report serves as an update to the 2019 seminal report regarding non-lawyer navigators. The document provides current information on the existing programs documented in the first report, as well as highlights newly established programs in the field. Additionally, it offers recommendations for individuals looking to establish court-affiliated navigator programs, based on the experiences, lessons, and guidance provided by the leaders featured in the prior research efforts. | |
19 | Remote Proceeding Toolkit | NCSC | 2023 | Update on 2022 report, with additional topics: court policies, court kiosk projects, video remote interpreting, and court user feedback. | |
20 | The Limits of Self Help: A Field Experiment in an Arizona Housing Court | Daniel W. Bernal & Andy Ye Yuan (Northwestern Law & Econ Research) | 2023 | The paper explores how many Americans face legal issues and may unintentionally fail to respond, which results to problems like arrest or eviction. To remedy this, informational help is commonly used by courts and advocates, but its effectiveness varies. A study on eviction cases found that providing self-help did not reduce defaults or improve outcomes. Rather, it potentially harmed certain groups: Latinx households had a higher chance of facing evictions, and tenants with business landlords were more likely to have their cases dismissed. This challenges the idea that self-help always benefits litigants and highlights potential unintended consequences. | |
21 | Filing Fairness Toolkit | Stanford’s Filing Fairness Project | 2023 | This toolkit helps guide courts and court stakeholders modernize their filing systems for efficiency and sustainability, improving the experience of court users. Key takeaways are: (1) it reduces administrative burdens and costs, improve judicial efficiency, and increase access to justice; (2) when courts collaborate to scale solutions via technology, increasing access is more attainable; (3) courts can optimize the benefits of filing system for court staff and users by a myriad of ways; (4) judges, administratiors, clerks, etc. can drive court filing modernization in four key areas. | |
22 | You Have to Find Them First and that’s a People-Centered Process: Learning about People-Centered Justice through the Rural Mobile Law Van | Ab Currie (Canadian Forum on Civil Justice) | 2023 | This paper recognizes how people actually experience problems are crucial for designing effective services. Often termed "people-centered justice," the idea emphasizes understanding the user's perspecitive. Yet, existing literature often focuses on the transactional aspects of service delivery. This paper suggests that the initial step in providing people-centered justice is identifying those with unmet needs and guiding them to seek help. This specifically evaluates a Mobile Rural Law Van project, which highlights the importance of early-stage people-centricity in addressing rural community needs. The insights are based on observations rather than structured research, representing accumulated lessons as the project continues to evolve. | |
23 | Strengths and Opportunities for Sustainability: The Mobile Rural Law Van and Winter Venues in North Halton and Wellington County | Ab Currie (Canadian Forum on Civil Justice) | 2023 | Halfway through its three-year pilot, the Mobile Rural Law Van has succesfully met its goal of responding to the needs of people in rural areas. To ensure long-term success, sustainability goes beyond just funding. In fact, it involves how the project operates and its connection to the community. This paper highlights non-monetary factors that contribute to the project's sustainability and suggests adjustments for long-term success in meeting the legal and other public needs of those living in rural areas. | |
24 | From Serving the Needs of the Few to Serving the Needs of the Many: How the Rural Mobile Law Van is Extending the Reach of Legal Aid in Wellington County and North Halton, Ontario | Ab Currie (Canadian Forum on Civil Justice) | 2023 | The paper assesses the success of the Rural Mobile Law Van, which aims to meet legal needs in rural areas, addressing a global legal aid challenge of limited resources. The project does extends legal aid through outreach where people live, social media engagement, and integration into rural areas. Consistency also builds trust among the affected communities as referral networks enhance assistance beyond its expertise. However, to reach more people, efforts can focus on reducing barriers in winter venues and expanding digital outreach platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook for legal information, advice, and referrals. | |
25 | Community Justice Services Models From Around the World | Lisa Moore (Canadian Forum on Civil Justice) | 2023 | This report looks at community justice services, focusing on approaches and models for justice outreach and legal assistance. It features organizations that provide legal assistance to those who are vulnerable or marginalized. | |
26 | Exploring Community-Based Services, Costs and Benefits for People-Centered Justice | Trevor CW Farrow & Ab Currie (Canadian Forum on Civil Justice) | 2023 | The goal of this report, as part of the Community Based Justice Research project, is to describe and summarize the overall CBJR project, to articulate the project within the context of access to justice on a global scale, to describe findings that mostly come from the Africa-based CBJR project studies, and to learn from the work of the team's colleagues in Africa. | |
27 | Accessing Justice with Zoom: Experiences and Outcomes in Online Civil Courts | Victor D. Quintanilla et al. | 2023 | In the context of the pandemic, courts had to utilize online systems. This report looks at the experiences of unrepresented people attending court in person compared to unrepresented people accessing court remotely. Findings support people accessing court online. | |
28 | Minnesota Consumer Debt Litigation | Minnesota State Bar Association Access to Justice Committee | 2023 | This paper shows that current civil court practices have made it difficult for consumers without an attorney to fully engage in debt litigation, or often to even know that there is a case against them. However, the current system works well for businesses that turn to the courts to resolve debts. | |
29 | One-Sided Litigation: Lessons from Civil Docket Data in California Debt Collection Lawsuits | Debt Collection Lab (Claire Johnson Raba) | 2023 | This study demonstrates that debt cases present an increasing burden on both consumers as well as the civil court system. It shows that there are large amounts of creditor plaintiffs filing against unrepresented consumers. | |
30 | From Navigation to Transformation: Addressing Inequities in California’s Regional Center System Through Community-Led Solutions | Disability Rights California | 2023 | This report demonstrates the ways in which racial disparities in California’s system for delivering services to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities remain persist. The report focuses on two principles guiding action to change this system: shifting focus from navigating the system to transforming it and full partnership with those most affected at every level. It offers four strategies for policy change, including overhauling policies, holding regional centers accountable, centering equity, and reimagining partnerships. | |
31 | Seen, Heard, and Represented: A Policymaker’s Guide to Counsel for Kids | National Association of Counsel for Children | 2023 | This report shows that children should be entitled to legal representation at all stages of a child protection proceeding. Although children in the juvenile legal system are guaranteed due process and the right to legal counsel under the United States Constitution, similarly situated children in foster care are not yet afforded the same Constitutional protections of their civil rights. | |
32 | Civil Assessment: The Hidden Court Fee that Penalizes Poverty | Debt Free Justice California | 2023 | To understand the actual impact of civil assessments, the authors engaged in a survey of 200+ people who faced traffic citations. | |
33 | Just Horizons: Charting the Future of the Courts | National Center for State Courts | 2022 | In an effort to explore the changing needs of the judicial system, this report explores the driving forces of change in society that could impact the work of courts in the future, identifies key areas of vulnerability, and suggests strategies for moving forward on an individual, community and national level. | |
34 | Assessments & Surcharges: A 50-State Survey of Supplemental Fees | Fines & Fees Justice Center | 2022 | This survey of statutes pertaining to fines and fees in all 50 states and DC was designed to capture where and to what extent fees are authorized by state legislatures. | |
35 | A Matter of Race and Place | Disability Voices United | 2022 | This report—assessing data from FY 2020–21—finds that adults with disabilities in similar living conditions may receive drastically different care based on their ethnicity or geography, with Latinx communities in particular struggling in receiving lower levels of spending. The report outlines nine recommendations—focused on increased oversight by the Department of Development Services (DDS)—to ensure equitable access to care. | |
36 | Remote Proceeding Toolkit | NCSC | 2022 | This toolkit provides courts with guidance for remote & hybrid proceedings, assessing best practices from courts across the country—along with academic research—to provide a set of options that are mindful of court budgets while helping achieve fairness and transparency across our justice system. | |
37 | State of the State Courts | NCSC | 2022 | This survey of public opinion looks into public trust and confidence in the courts, along with other related topics. | |
38 | Unfair Hearings: How People with Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities Lack Access to Justice in California | Disability Rights California et al. | 2021 | This report highlights the ways in which the fair hearing process, at which an impartial administrative law judge is supposed to ensure people with intellectual and developmental disabilities have their rights to services, is failing to provide adequate access to justice in California. | |
39 | Interim Report: Remote Access to Courts | Judicial Council Workgroup on Post-Pandemic Initiatives | 2021 | This interim report provides the findings of the workgroup assigned by governor Newsom to examine what successful court practices adopted during the pandemic demonstrate the most promise to increase access to justice, modernize services, and promote consistency and uniformity throughout the state. | |
40 | A Court System's Guide to Increasing Diversity and Fostering Inclusion | Kentucky Administrative Office of the Courts | 2021 | This guide provides tools for court systems to use to increase the level of diversity within their organizations and establish a more inclusive work environment. The guide was created by the Kentucky Statewide Department Equity Committee to reduce racial and ethnic disparities. | |
41 | Work Group on Homelessness: Report to the Chief Justice | Judicial Council Work Group on Homelessness | 2021 | This report recommends ways the California judicial branch might work with the Governor, the Legislature, and other entities to address homelessness, and identifies how court programs and services might be improved to increase access and assistance for court users experiencing or at risk of experiencing homelessness. | |
42 | The Evolving Science on Implicit Bias: An Updated Resource for the State Court Community | NCSC | 2021 | The report summarizes the current scientific (psychology and brain sciences) information on implicit bias, along with implications for courts. | |
43 | How Courts Embraced Technology, Met the Pandemic Challenge, and Revolutionized Their Operations | PEW | 2021 | The outbreak of COVID forced courts to shift to online operations in a matter of weeks. A usually inefficient and antiquated system, meant courts had to reimagine the way to administer justice. The article argues that since in the civil system, litigants who usually go unrepresented, the new technology holds promise for a more accessible system with better outcomes. It also found that the accelerated adoption of technology disproportionately benefited people and business with legal representation and in some instances, made the civil legal system more difficult to navigate for those without. | |
44 | Court System Overload: The State of Debt Collection in California after the Fair Debt Buyer Protection Act | Center for Responsible Lending | 2020 | This report discusses the national impact of debt collection and summarizes applicable debt collection legislation, including the national Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), the California Rosenthal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (Rosenthal Act), and the California Fair Debt Buying Protection Act (CFDBPA). | |
45 | How Debt Collectors Are Transforming the Business of State Courts | Erika Rickard (PEW) | 2020 | This report summarizes debt claims research and interviews with consumer experts, creditors, lenders, attorneys, and court officials. This report also identifies three initial steps states can take to improve the handling of debt collection cases. | |
46 | The Utah Online Dispute Resolution Platform: A Usability Evaluation and Report | Stacy Butler et al. | 2020 | Focusing on findings and recommendations based on usability testing for Utah's online dispute resolution (ODR) platform. The web-based alternative dispute resolution tool gives parties in small claims debt collection actions a way to deal with their matter online. This report summarizes observation-based usability testing, which informs increasing functionality, usability, accessibility, and comprehension for users. | |
47 | Legal Market Landscape Report | William D. Henderson (Commissioned by the State Bar of California) | 2018 | ||
48 | Commission on the Future of California's Court System, Report to the Chief Justice | Commission on the Future of California's Court System | 2017 | Presents research and analysis on innovative proposals for the justice system, including on effectively adjudicating cases, increasing fiscal stability, and using technology to enhance access. The report was based on information and studies gathered and conducted by working groups. | |
49 | Analysis and Advantages of Digital Court Reporting and Recording in the Courts, Deposition, and Administrative Hearings Markets | American Association of Electronic Reporters and Transcribers Government Relations Committee | 2016 | Describes the advantages of digital court reporting and recording for the purpose of creating a record. Advantages include accurate and verifiable records, timely delivery and prompt access to those records, availability of digital court reporters, and cost savings. | |
50 | The Color of Debt: How Collection Suits Squeeze Black Neighborhoods | Paul Kiel & Annie Waldman (ProPublica) | 2015 | This report shows how debt collection lawsuits are more prevalent in black neighborhoods. Companies use the courts to sue people for small consumer debts. With the power granted by a court judgment, collectors can seize a chunk of a debtor’s pay. | |
51 | Court Reporting Industry Outlook Report | National Court Reporters Association | 2014 | As an "Industry Outlook Report," this report provides information on the size, numbers, and prospective demand for services for the court reporting industry. | |
52 | Making the Record Utilizing Digital Electronic Recording | NCSC | 2013 | Discusses electronic recording programs for courts, including governance and management, procedures and best practices, and recommendations regarding producing transcripts as well as minimum standards for digital recording systems, software, and equipment. | |
53 | Due Process and Consumer Debt: Eliminating Barriers to Justice in Consumer Credit Cases | New York Appleseed | 2009 | This report calls for practical innovations and reforms that will have an impact on the experience of unrepresented consumer debtors in the legal system. The report summarizes some of the challenges contributing to the inequities in consumer debt litigation, as well as key recommendations to help remedy the problems. | |
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2 | A Descriptive Analysis of Tenant Right to Counsel Law andPraxis 2017–2024 | Emily A. Benfer et al. | 2025 | This article offers a comprehensive overview of state and local tenant right to counsel (RTC) policies, highlighting legislation passed from July 2017 to June 2024 in five states, 17 cities, and one county. It details the varied provisions of these laws, including their purposes, eligibility criteria, and triggers in eviction processes. Using policy surveillance and legal mapping, the study examines real-world implementation through qualitative interviews with stakeholders, revealing discrepancies between legislation and execution. It identifies barriers to full RTC implementation and its systemic benefits, providing valuable insights for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners to enhance RTC policies. | |
3 | A Blueprint For Expanding Access to Justice in Los Angeles Superior Court’s Eviction Docket | Stanford Law School's Deborah L. Rhode Center on the Legal Profession, Legal Design Lab | 2025 | Discusses how court and university partnerships can drive innovation, enhance user experience, and address equity gaps in the justice system. It results from a yearlong collaboration between Stanford and LA Superior Court, aiming to create human-centered systems for the eviction docket and providing a model for nationwide adaptation. | |
4 | The Keys to Safety: Why housing protections increase safety for all | Alliance for Safety and Justice | 2024 | ||
5 | Reimagining Housing Court: A Framework for Court-Based Eviction Diversion | National Center for State Courts (NCSC) | 2024 | Reports on NCSC's Eviction Diversion Initiative (EDI), which was established in a network of 24 state and local courts. The goal was to shift housing courts to work with tenants, not just a place that happened to them, by connecting with resources and other ways to find a path toward housing and financial stability. | |
6 | Tenant Right-to-Counsel and Adverse Birth Outcomes in New York, New York | Kathryn M. Leifheit et al. (JAMA Pediatric) | 2024 | A cohort study of over 260,000 live births, right-to-counsel was associated with a reduction in adverse birth outcomes among Medicaid-insured birthing parents. | |
7 | The Estimated Economic Impact of an Eviction Right to Counsel in the City of Columbus and Franklin County | STOUT | 2024 | Provides a discussion of the economic impact of a RTC for Columbus and the county the city is in. | |
8 | Assessing the Benefit of Full Legal Representation in Eviction Cases in Massachusetts | Martha Samuelson, Brian Ellman, & Ngoc Pham et al. (Boston Bar Association) | 2024 | Assesses the financial benefits to the state (Massachusetts) by providing full legal representation for evictions. | |
9 | What Role Does Access to Civil Justice Play in Reducing Homelessness? An Investigation of San Francisco | Christina Jenq (PhD), Daniel Chen (PhD), & Micah Park et al. (Open Door Legal) | 2024 | This project focuses on developing the first evidence regarding the effects of civil justice on homelessness through both quasi-experimental and qualitative case study approaches. The authors found that there was a signfiicant and substantial decrease in homelessness for people with access to free civil legal help in San Francisco. The homelessness rate dropped by around 5% for those with legal help. Of people at risk of not having a home or were currently without homes, 46% of those that received legal representation were prevented from becoming homeless. It was also more cost-effective when compared to other interventions. | |
10 | Tenant right to counsel and health: Pathways and possibilities | Danya E. Keene, Gabriela Olea Vargas, and Annie Harper (Qualitative Research in Health) | 2024 | Reports on the collection of qualitative data in Connecticut, during the first year of the statewide right to counsel (RTC) policy there, from more than 100 tenants who received RTC services and other stakeholders. These data show the multiple ways that a right to counsel helps tenants stay in their homes and prevents detrimental health consequences as a result of eviction. The article also speaks to the role of RTC in addressing tenant health and equity beyond individual successes, such as by helping build collective tenant power to support systemic changes. | |
11 | Housing is Health: Prioritizing Health Justice and Equity in the U.S. Eviction System | Emily A. Benfer (Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law, and Ethics) | 2024 | Applying the World Health Organization Conceptual Social Determinants of Health model and the Health Justice Framework to evictions in the US, the article looks to demonstrate how it perpetuates a structural determinant of health inequity that harms historically marginalized groups, such as Black renters. | |
12 | Toward a New Understanding: California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness | UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative | 2024 | The California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness (CASPEH) is the largest representative study of homelessness in the US since the mid-1990s. | |
13 | Toward Dignity: Understanding Older Adult Homelessness | UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative | 2024 | Examines findings from the California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness with a focus on aging and the fact that the proportion of adults experiencing homelessness who are 50 and older has risen faster than other groups. | |
14 | Civil Gideon: A Judge's Perspective on the Right to Counsel in Eviction Cases | Shera C. Grant | 2024 | With the mass eviction crisis in the United States, millions–often without legal representation–face eviction annually. This lack of counsel disproportionately affects poor and marginalized communities. Thus, this article advocates for a civil right to counsel in eviction cases, noting that some cities and states have adopted such legislation since 2017. It also discusses the positive impact legal representation can have on eviction outcomes, arguing for a nationwide adoption of "Civil Gideon" rights. | |
15 | Advancing Racial and Health Justice Through a Right to Counsel for Tenants: A Primer for the Public Health Field | ChangeLab Solutions et al. | 2024 | This report details how legal representation for tenants facing eviction can promote housing stability, empower tenants, and improve housing conditions. It outlines the role of public health practitioners in supporting the development and implementation of right to counsel laws, foster partnerships to address housing-related health disparities, and advocate for impactful policy changes. | |
16 | Gideon is in the House: Lessons from the Home-Renters’ Right-to-Counsel Movement | Cassie Chambers Armstrong (Harvard Civil-Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review) | 2024 | This article looks at how, before 2017, there were no jurisdictions with a right-to-counsel law, but, now, there are 15 cities and three states with a RTC on the books. The article looks at RTC in relation to the larger "civil Gideon" movement, including in the context of the Supreme Court's jurisprudence that disallows a right to an attorney in a civil case. RTC points to a way to think through a more expanded right to counsel in civil cases. | |
17 | The Right to Counsel for Tenants Facing Eviction: Enacted Legislation | National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel (NCCRC) | 2023 | This notes the enacted legislation to the right to counsel for tenants facing eviction and its effectiveness in a number of cities, counties, and states across the United States and a quick reference guide detailing its scope, eligibility, impacts, and more. | |
18 | The Limits of Self Help: A Field Experiment in an Arizona Housing Court | Social Science Research Network (Daniel Bernal and Andy Yuan) | 2023 | This study shows the results of a large-scale field experiment to provide self-help to tenants facing eviction. The study finds that self-help may have led to worse legal outcomes for Hispanic tenants and tenants with corporate landlords (as compared to non-Hispanic tenants and tenants with non-corporate landlords, respectively). These findings serve as a counterpoint to previous studies on legal interventions and suggest the limits of self-help in enabling litigants to complex actions. They also suggest that self-help, by altering litigation costs for adverse parties, may unintentionally cause harm. | |
19 | No Safe Harbor: Eviction Filing in Public Housing | The University of Chicago Press Journals | 2023 | This study investigated the use of eviction filings in public housing, with a focus on serial eviction filing. The study shows that despite paying much lower rents, residents of public housing were at equal risk of facing an eviction filing as their neighbors living in private market housing. In addition, public housing residents who were filed against were significantly more likely to be filed against repeatedly than those living in private market housing. | |
20 | Housing Justice Program: National Needs Assessment | Equal Justice Works | 2023 | This report provides a summary of the results of the HJP's needs assessment, and includes insights on the capacity of community-based organizations to meet the legal needs of low-income communities affected by evictions and involuntary displacement. The information in the summary is intended to inform strategic expansion of the HJP to different jurisdictions. | |
21 | A Judicious Investment: Right to Counsel Is a Cost-Effective Way to Solve Los Angeles’ Affordability Crisis and Keep Angelenos Housed | Strategic Actions for a Just Economy (SAJE) | 2023 | A report that shows that the inequity in power amongst landlords versus renters is exacerbated by the fact that 88% of landlords, but only 3% of renters, have legal representation when in eviction court. The report shows that without strong, permanent tenant protections, landlords will return to their pre-COVID business strategy of displacing low-income renters through harassment and/or the threat of eviction in order to raise rents and maximize profit. | |
22 | Breaking Down Barriers: Promising Programs and Initiatives to Reduce Evictions | Legal Services Corporation (LSC) | 2023 | LSC launched an eviction study to investigate the unmet legal needs due to the eviction crisis. It explores a range of aspects of the crisis. The brief looks at innovative approaches to legal service provision, along with other access-to-justice stakeholders are doing in order to increase access to eviction-related legal help. | |
23 | No Eviction Without Representation: Evictions’ Disproportionate Harms and the Promise of Right to Counsel | ACLU and NCCRC | 2022 | This report discusses the implications of incongruity between wage growth and rent increases, the racialized and gendered nature of evictions, homelessness as a result of eviction, the eviction process, and, finally, the critical role of a civil right to counsel in eviction cases. | |
24 | The Effects of Legal Representation on Tenant Outcomes in Housing Court: Evidence from New York City's Universal Access Program | Michael T. Cassidy & Janet Currie (National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper) | 2022 | The authors look at New York City’s Universal Access to Counsel program. They utilize detailed address-level housing court data from 2016 to 2019. They found that tenants who have access to lawyers are less likely to be subject to possessory judgments, face smaller monetary judgments, and are less likely to have eviction warrants issued against them. Furthermore, lawyers have larger effects in poorer places and in those with larger shares of non-citizens. The authors conclude that representation in housing matters has a positive impact on the lives of low-income people. | |
25 | The Estimated Cost of an Eviction Right to Counsel Outside of New York City | STOUT | 2022 | The study reasonably expects a net positive fiscal impact of funding an eviction right to counsel in NYC. It finds there would be more than offset by the cost savings and economic impacts New York would recognize from the housing stability because eviction have significant impacts and related costs like the costs for shelter and other support but also the impact on community instability, and unpaid utility bills and property taxes. The report offers the benefits of an eviction right to counsel as well like improving the court system. | |
26 | Cleveland Eviction Right to Counsel Annual Independent Evaluation: January 1 to December 31, 2021 | STOUT | 2022 | Key findings from this report include that legal assistance helped prevent eviction judgments and achieved clients' housing goals. For instance, 93% of the time they prevented an eviction judgment or involuntary move. 79% of clients described defective conditions, and RTC helped in identifying and responding to these housing conditions. Other impacts included leveraging rental assistance (83% of clients received assistance) and dramatically increasing access to an attorney (from around 1% to 2% up to approximately 18%). | |
27 | Tenant Right to Counsel Data – Outcomes (March 2021 through December 2021) | Eviction Defense Collaborative | 2022 | Provides data from EDC's RTC efforts, focusing on the difference between full scope vs. limited scope representation. In terms of unit retention, full scope resulted in 59% unit retention, while limited resulted in 19%. Of the 30% of full-scope represented clients who did not retain their units, 70% reached a favorable settlement, such as with sufficient time and money to move out. Of the 64% of tenants who did not retain their units with some type of limited scope representation, only 3% got a settlement with sufficient time and money to move. | |
28 | Out of Reach: The High Cost of Housing | National Low-Income Housing Coalition | 2022 | Describes the gap between real wages and rent. | |
29 | Cleveland Eviction Right to Counsel Annual Independent Evaluation: January 1 to December 31, 2021 | STOUT | 2022 | The report found that the city of Cleveland's passage of an RTC legislation protects the housing and dignity of renting families. It first discusses the eviction landscape of the city and moves to the outcomes and goals of RTC. The study shows 93% of cases represented in Cleveland Housing Court by a legal aid attorney, that were seeking to avoid eviction or an involuntary move, avoided displacement due to the first 6 months of RTC. It closes with a snapshot of its successes and its hopes to expand funding. | |
30 | Examination of Eviction Filings in Lancaster County, Nebraska, 2019–2021 | Ryan Sullivan | 2022 | Using data from over 3,000 court hearings in Lancaster County, Nebraska collected between 2019 and 2021, the author found that a significant number of evictions were unlawful and that access to counsel decreased the rate of unlawful evictions. | |
31 | Disrupting Dispossession: How the Right to Counsel in Landlord-Tenant Proceedings Is Reshaping Outcomes | Paula Franzese & Cecil Thomas (Seton Hall Law Review) | 2022 | Seton Hall Law Review article that shows that the imbalance of power amongst landlords and tenants all but ensures that a vulnerable tenant named in an eviction action will be dispossessed. | |
32 | Report of the Access to Counsel in Evictions Task Force | Maryland Access to Counsel in Evictions Task Force | 2022 | This report explains the Maryland Access to Justice Commission Justice Task Force findings and recommendations regarding funding to implement the access to counsel in evictions program. | |
33 | Power and Possibility in the Era of Right to Counsel, Robust Rent Laws & COVID-19 | Erica Braudy and Kim Hawkins (Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law and Policy) | 2021 | The article articulates a vision of laws that lawmakers can put into place, and the role of housing attorneys in enforcing those laws. | |
34 | Universal Access to Legal Services: A Report on Year Four of Implementation in New York City | Office of Civil Justice, New York City Human Resources Administration | 2021 | OCJ contracted non profit legal service providers to implement NYC's RTC law. Weekly teleconferences were held with service providers, advocates, partners and elected officials to receive updates and share pertinent information. OCJ found that outreach was important and worked with stakeholders to increase awareness. Overall the success of the program was credited to the 84% of households represented in court by lawyers were able to remain in their homes through this law in 2021. | |
35 | Key Studies and Data About How Legal Aid Improves Housing Outcomes | The Justice in Government Project | 2021 | This report is a collection of studies that prove when tenants have access to legal representation, tenants are more likely to remain housed and have their children stay in school. Also legal representation can ensure safe and healthy housing and help remove any barriers to future housing by clearing or preventing eviction records. The report includes highlights but summarizes a curation of studies as well as provides resources. | |
36 | Recommendations for Creating National and Local Eviction Data Systems | New America | 2021 | Describes the need for an eviction data infrastructure that is easy to use and access, standardized and centralized, comprehensive and trustworthy, and ethical (including protects privacy). | |
37 | Rising to the Moment: Advancing the National Movement for Universal Representation | Vera Institute of Justice | 2020 | Vera started the SAFE Initiative after the 2016 election, a network of publicly-funded deportation defense programs operating in the context of a lack of mandated access to counsel for this area of law. After three years of work through 21 partner sites, this report provides information on the programs as well as the results of representation. | |
38 | Racial and Gender Disparities among Evicted Americans | Peter Hepburn, Renee Louis & Matthew Desmond (Sociological Science) | 2020 | This studies analyzed millions of court records of eviction cases filed from 2012 and 2016 in 39 states. It is considered the first national study of evictions, documenting the racial and gender demographics of people being evicted. It shows that Black renters are subjected to a disproportionate share of eviction filings and experienced the highest rates of eviction filing and eviction judgment. Black and Latinx renters were more likely to be serially filed against for eviction at the same location. In terms of gender, Black and Latinx female renters faced higher eviction rates than men. Overall, this study is the most comprehensive analysis, as of 2020, of racial and gender disparities among evicted renters in the US. | |
39 | Cost-Benefit Analysis of Providing a Right to Counsel to Tenants in Eviction Proceedings | STOUT | 2019 | The Los Angeles Right to Counsel Coalition retained Stout Risius Ross, LLC (a global advisory firm) to perform an analysis of the cost and benefits associated with the proposed Right to Counsel program for tenants in Los Angeles County. In this paper, Stout estimates the County may realize approximately $23.5 million in benefits annually related to people avoiding disruptive displacement by utilizing County-funded resources. | |
40 | Unequal Burden, Unequal Risk: Households Headed by Black Women Experience Highest Rates of Eviction | Jane Place Neighborhood Sustainability Initiative | 2019 | This report follows the launch of an eviction court monitoring project, a comprehensive study of evictions through three years of court records. It details alarming patterns and concentrations of evictions and an inequitable eviction burden predominantly placed on Black neighborhoods. The project also developed a tool for community volunteers trained as court monitors. A snapshot of the data from the first six months showed people were primarily evicted for owing one month's rent or less and a staggering discrepancy in outcomes between tenants who were represented by counsel and those who were not. | |
41 | California Evictions Are Fast, Frequent, and Underreported | Tenants Together | 2018 | This report reviews California court filings and shows that the majority of eviction cases are resolved within a month, in contrast to the claims of landlord lobbyists who oppose tenant protections in Sacramento. The authors believe that a study into unfiled evictions would likely show that over a million Californians each year face involuntary displacement from their homes. | |
42 | Recent Studies Compare Full Representation to Limited Assistance in Eviction Cases | John Pollock (Housing Law Bulletin) | 2012 | An article that discusses three studies which review how full representation. limited (unbundled) assistance, or no assistance has an effect on eviction cases. The studies include: The Quincy District Court in Massachusetts (“MA District Court study”), the Northeast Housing Court in Massachusetts (“MA Housing Court study”), and the San Mateo County Court in California (“CA County Court study”). | |
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2 | Health Equity and Rural Attorney Deserts (Part VI of the Rural Justice Policy Paper Series) | The California Access to Justice Commision (CalATJ), with LAAC | 2021 | This paper examines the intersection of two critical and intertwined issues facing rural communities: The lack of access to healthcare and the lack of access to legal help. Lawyers help people navigate civil justice problems causing and caused by negative health outcomes and inadequate or inaccessible healthcare. | |
3 | On Shared Suffering: Judicial Intimacy in the Rural Northland | Michelle Statz (Law & Society Review) | 2021 | A paper that shows that what makes a rural courtrooms accessible to parties without counsel is the judge. The paper draws on ethnographic fieldwork and an interdisciplinary theoretical framework to illuminate the lived consequences and global implications of judges' responses in rural areas. | |
4 | “They Had Access, But They Didn't Get Justice”: Why Prevailing Access To Justice Initiatives Fail Rural Americans | Michelle Statz et al. (Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law & Policy) | 2021 | The article argues some access to justice initiatives are flawed in three ways, (1) fail to meaningfully recognize the limits of rural infrastructure capacity and the complex barriers low-income rural residents in particular navigate, (2) a presumption that anyone in a crisis situation can effectively be their own attorney, (3) a professionally understanding of justice that is critically at odds with rural individuals' own expectations. The article highlights broader tensions that emerge when dominant narratives around "access" are held against the lived expertise of those experience daily rural attorney shortages and other structural inequities. | |
5 | Rural Legal Deserts Are a Critical Health Determinant | Michele Statz & Paula Termuhlen (American Journal of Public Health) | 2020 | A paper that shows the absence of legal attorneys in an area has a significant public health impact, particularly amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. | |
6 | California’s Attorney Deserts, Social Determinants of Health, and COVID-19 (Part V of the Rural Justice Policy Paper Series) | CalATJ, with LAAC | 2020 | This report looks at how legal aid and pro bono lawyers assist clients by both providing redress for legal wrongs while also creating more favorable social determinants of health during COVID-19 and beyond. | |
7 | The Role of Technology in Enhancing Rural Access to Justice (Part IV of the Rural Justice Policy Paper Series) | CalATJ, with LAAC | 2020 | The goal of this policy paper is to discuss the role and potential of legal tech to meet the access-to-justice needs of rural Californians, describe the opportunities in putting tech into practice, and speak to current and future funding sources. From SMS text messages to videoconferencing to accessible and effective websites, technology tools have great potential to enhance access to justice. California has the opportunity to become a leader in using technology as a key tool in building the legal safety net for our communities. To do so, legal aid organizations and other access-to-justice stakeholders will need financial and practical support to invest in innovative technologies they can mobilize to strengthen the legal safety net for low- and moderate-income Californians in rural and urban areas alike. | |
8 | California’s Rural Housing Crisis: The Access To Justice Implications (Part III of the Rural Justice Policy Paper Series) | CalATJ, with LAAC | 2019 | This paper focuses on the intersection of California’s rural housing crisis and access to legal services, legal information, and—ultimately—just outcomes. | |
9 | Disasters In Rural California: The Impact On Access To Justice (Part II of the Rural Justice Policy Paper Series) | CalATJ, with LAAC | 2019 | Legal aid and pro bono assistance are vital aspects of any disaster recovery process. Legal assistance to low-income Californians is critical when they are facing illegal actions by landlords, scammers, and employers. In the aftermath of disaster, this legal assistance is imperative if disaster survivors are to regain a sense of normalcy and stabilize their lives. Legal aid must have the funding and resources to provide wide-ranging services that protect low-income and vulnerable Californians after a disaster. These populations disproportionately reside in rural areas, where both legal aid lawyers and attorneys generally are in short supply. | |
10 | California Attorney Deserts: Access To Justice Implications Of The Rural Lawyer Shortage (Part I of the Rural Justice Policy Paper Series) | CalATJ, with LAAC | 2019 | This policy brief researches the issue of so-called attorney deserts, places where too few attorneys live and work, leaving unmet legal needs. The paper details the problem and suggest possible solutions. | |
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