This final report by the Access to Justice Study Committee of the State Bar of Wisconsin found that Wisconsin trails neighboring states in tackling the large Justice Gap.
Policymakers and Funders
Final Report on the Assessment of Telephone-Based Legal Assistance Provided by Pennsylvania Legal Aid Programs Funded Under the Access to Justice Act
This report presents the principal findings and conclusions from a comprehensive evaluation of telephone-based legal assistance being provided by Pennsylvania legal aid programs.
Documenting the Justice Gap In America: The Current Unmet Civil Legal Needs of Low-Income Americans (2009)
This report updates and expands LSC’s 2005 report “Documenting the Justice Gap in America: The Current Unmet Civil Legal Needs of Low-Income Americans”. This report, completed in September 2009, shows that a continuing, major justice gap exists in our nation: for every person helped by LSC-funded legal aid programs, another is turned away. This report adds data on self-represented litigants.
Accessing Justice in Contemporary America: The Community Needs and Services Survey
This is the first study to pair an investigation of the civil justice problems people experience with an investigation of the legal and non-legal resources available to assist them in handling those problems.
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 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.
Statewide Action Plan for Serving Self-Represented Litigants
The plan states that court-based staffed self-help centers, supervised by attorneys, are the optimum way for courts to facilitate the timely and cost-effective processing of cases involving self-represented litigants, to increase access to the courts and improve delivery of justice to the public. Well-designed strategies to serve self-represented litigants, and to effectively manage their cases at all stages, must be incorporated and budgeted as core court functions.
The National Self-Represented Litigants Project: Identifying and Meeting the Needs of Self-Represented Litigants, Final Report
This major report is the result of research conducted by Dr. Julie Macfarlane in three Canadian provinces from 2011-2013 on self-represented litigants (SRL’s) in family and civil court. It aims to dispel myths about SRLs including the perception that they choose to self represent because they believe themselves as capable as lawyers. It contains extensive 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.
Annual Report of the Task Force to Expand Access to Civil Legal Services in New York
2012 annual report to the Chief Judge of New York State.
Legal Aid Research 