This report presents the principal findings and conclusions from a comprehensive evaluation of telephone-based legal assistance being provided by Pennsylvania legal aid programs.
Legal Aid Practitioners
State Legal Needs Studies Point to Justice Gap
The nine state legal needs studies released 2000-2005 indicate that the findings of the 1993 ABA study concerning the gap between the legal needs experienced by low-income people and the services they receive from private attorneys and legal aid programs remain valid today.
Passion, Caution, and Evolution: The Legal Aid Movement and Empirical Studies of Legal Assistance
This article responds to D. James Greiner, Cassandra Wolos Pattanayak, and Jonathan Hennessy, The Limits of Unbundled Legal Assistance: A Randomized Study in a Massachusetts District Court and Prospects for the Future, 126 Harv. L. Rev. 901 (2013).
Representing Indigent Parties in Civil Cases: An Analysis of State Practices
This is a two-year study of state efforts to provide indigent representation services in civil cases finds that a lack of clear federal guidelines has resulted in variations in state provisions.
A Test of Unbundled Legal Services in the New York City Housing Court
The study finds that the Volunteer Lawyer for the Day Program is a feasible and useful approach to alleviate the overwhelming unmet legal needs of New York City Housing Court litigants.
A Report on Pennsylvania’s Access to Justice Act FY 2004-2011
Enacted in 2002, Pennsylvania’s Access to Justice Act is funded by surcharges on legal document filing fees. During FY2004-FY2011, it helped fund work on 117,632 cases and directly benefited 231,735 people.
Shaping the Future of Justice: Effective Recruitment and Retention of Civil Legal Aid Attorneys in California
Civil legal aid organizations in California have found it increasingly difficult to recruit and retain high quality attorneys to provide legal assistance for low-income individuals. This report examines recruitment and retention trends for civil legal aid attorneys in California and offers recommendations.
Making the Case for Medical-Legal Partnerships: A Review of the Evidence
This covers 49 published articles written between 1977 – 2012 available on the MEDLINE, Scopus, and Google Scholar databases. Researchers also scanned the Center’s “Academic Articles” page.
Pro Se Phenomenon
The article reviews the causes of the increase in pro se litigation in the US. Inability to pay is only one of many reasons a litigant will end up going to court pro se. The current state of legal services in the US is failing the people who need help the most. Most clients receive only advice on how to proceed on their own.
Findings of the Civil Legal Aid Opinion Research
In this video, Celinda Lake presents her research findings and recommendations for building awareness of the role of civil legal aid.
Legal Aid Research 