A project of the American Bar Association has awarded grants to state Access to Justice (ATJ) commissions in Alabama, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, Mississippi and Washington to promote innovation in civil legal aid delivery to people of limited means.
The ABA Access to Justice Commission Expansion Project also gave grants to help develop new state access-to-justice commissions and strengthen emerging commissions.
Recipients are the Georgia State Bar Access to Justice Committee, Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts, Indiana Bar Foundation, Montana Justice Foundation, New Hampshire Access to Justice Commission, Supreme Court of Virginia and Supreme Court of the Virgin Islands.
The grants are funded by the Public Welfare Foundation, the Bauman Foundation and the Kresge Foundation.
The grants will fund projects that will help expand the availability of lawyers who provide services to clients on individual tasks and other models for affordable services; improve language access and eliminate implicit cultural bias in the justice system; and use public libraries as access points for legal aid.
Other projects will enhance fundraising for legal aid outside the legal community; create partnerships with health care and social services providers, government agencies and other new allies; preserve access for low-income people as courts implement e-filing; and increase web-based delivery of pro bono services for self-represented litigants.
“The grants represent a significant new phase in expanding access to justice across the country,” said California Court of Appeal Justice Laurie Zelon, chair of the ABA advisory group that made the funding decisions.
Access to Justice commissions are formal entities that bring together the highest level of the state’s courts, organized bar and other stakeholders to support the expansion of access to justice in civil matters for low-income and other disadvantaged people.
As of October, 27 states and the District of Columbia have access to justice commissions.
“The emergence of state access to justice commissions has been one of the great successes of the last decade,” said Lisa Wood, a partner with Foley Hoag in Boston and chair of the ABA Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants, which oversees the work of the association’s Resource Center for Access to Justice Initiatives.
Existing access to justice commissions have had a major impact in expanding support for self-represented litigants in the courts, increasing state-level funding for civil legal aid and developing new initiatives to increase pro bono services, according to the ABA.
Commissions also promote collaboration and coordination among civil legal aid providers; build commitments to pro bono and support for legal aid among law students and new lawyers.
In addition, the organization said, the groups increase awareness among legislators and policymakers, the bar, the judiciary and the general public about the legal needs of low-income and disadvantaged people and the social and economic benefits of ensuring they do not go unmet.
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