Articles Regarding Non-Wealthy Persons Ability to Access Justice in the United States
Latest article: ABA Law Journal, “86 percent of low-income Americans’ civil legal issues get inadequate or no legal help, study says” (June 14, 2017)
Source Document: Legal Services Corporation, The Justice Gap: Measuring the Unmet Civil Legal Needs of Low-income Americans (June 2017)
Lawyerist.com, Measuring the Access-to-Justice Gap: Nearly 70% of All Civil Defendants Aren’t Represented (2016)
Measuring the Access-to-Justice Gap: Nearly 70% of All Civil Defendants Aren’t Represented
http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/aba_commission_future_legal_services_report_access_to_justice
Washington State 2015 Civil Legal Needs Study Update
http://ocla.wa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/CivilLegalNeedsStudy_October2015_V21_Final10_14_15.pdf
Center for American Progress, The Justice Gap: Civil Legal Assistance Today and Tomorrow (2011)
https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/courts/reports/2011/06/22/9824/the-justice-gap/
Legal services Corporation: Documenting the Justice Gap In America The Current Unmet Civil Legal Needs of Low-Income Americans (2009)
Gillian K. Hadfield, Higher Demand, Lower Supply? A Comparative Assessment of the Legal Resource Landscape for Ordinary Americans, 37 Fordham Urb. L.J. 129 (2009).
http://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/ulj/vol37/iss1/6/
Washington State 2003 Civil Legal Needs Study Update
https://www.courts.wa.gov/newsinfo/content/taskforce/CivilLegalNeeds.pdf
The 2003 Washington State Civil Legal Needs Study: Executive Summary
https://www.courts.wa.gov/newsinfo/content/taskforce/legalneedsexecsummary.pdf
NEW MATERIALS ADDED JULY 30, 2017
Owen, Boycott, the guardian (U.S. edition) “Appeal court judge ‘horrified’ at number of litigants without lawyers” (November 23, 2014)
“83% of lawyers believe justice is no longer accessible to all. … As many as two-thirds of cases working their way through the family courts now involve at least one side who has no lawyer to provide help, according to the family law organisation Resolution. … 87% believed that wealth is a more important factor in access to justice than it previously was and 79% said increases in court fees were making it harder for people to bring cases. As many as 69% of the lawyers questioned said they would not recommend the legal profession as a career.”
https://www.theguardian.com/law/2014/nov/23/appeal-court-judge-horrified-number-litigants-without-lawyers
Andrew Cohen, The Atlantic “How Americans Lost the Right to Counsel, 50 Years After ‘Gideon’: You have a right to an attorney in a criminal case, even if you cannot afford one. The Supreme Court said so half a century ago. But today that precious right is systematically ignored or undermined.” (March 13, 2013)