Legal Aid Research is an online database that hosts over 400 summaries of research and reports that show how and why legal aid works.

The Project to Advance Civil Legal Aid Collaborations, an NLADA initiative, established this website to help civil legal aid programs and other equal justice advocates find federal funding to support their work.

What you will find on Legal Aid Research

Legal Aid Research is a research database providing free access to over 400 research reports and other documents about evidence-based practices and research results on civil legal aid. Legal Aid Research helps practitioners, researchers and others to:

• Make existing research easily accessible and understandable to civil legal aid programs, pro bono programs, bar associations, state access to justice commissions, researchers, funders and policy makers.
• Support advances in evidence-based practices and research on civil legal assistance.
• Increase the efficiency and effectiveness of state justice systems.
• Enhance the ability of civil legal aid programs to deliver fair and just results for clients.
• Promote calculated risk-taking in civil legal aid, which is essential to develop new models of service.
• Illustrate the impact of civil legal aid including the not-so-easily measured but still critical benefits such as client empowerment, self-determination, and environmental improvements in rental properties.
• Identify research needs, inspire research partnerships, and connect interested parties to existing research institutions.

Legal Aid Research features:

• An open access database with hundreds of resource listings
• Publications sourced from numerous organizations and journals in the US and internationally
• Works from hundreds of academics, attorneys, court officials and practitioners

A big thank you to our funders and supporters!

NLADA wishes to thank the Public Welfare Foundation and the Kresge Foundation for their generous support for the establishment of this website. 

About NLADA

National Legal Aid & Defender Association (NLADA), founded in 1911, is America’s oldest and largest nonprofit association devoted to excellence in the delivery of legal services to those who cannot afford counsel.

For 100 years, NLADA has pioneered access to justice at the national, state and local level through the creation of our public defender system, development of nationally applicable standards for legal representation, groundbreaking legal legislation and the creation of important institutions such as the Legal Services Corporation.

NLADA serves as the collective voice for our country’s civil legal aid and public defender services and provides advocacy, training, technical assistance and the NLADA Insurance Program to its members, who are comprised of legal professionals, institutions and the people they represent. 

Have feedback?

If you have any suggestions or comments about this website, email us at resourcedesk@nlada.org.