"The U.S. Supreme Court says it is evaluating its practices for sealing court records and plans to issue a new rule on the matter in the near future"

"Created by the Obama administration and closed by the Trump administration, the Justice Department's Access to Justice Office was a first-of-its-kind federal effort to ensure the right to counsel and boost funding for legal aid. Amid a historic pandemic, will lawmakers reopen it?"

"This Article ultimately proposes a two-step approach to alleviate rural justice deficits. First, although the information presented here provides a solid foundation, a critical need remains for ongoing, careful, and thoughtful study of the legal needs and lack of legal resources in rural areas. Second, the unique institutional, structural, and demographic characteristics of rural areas will require tailored, innovative, and data-driven solutions to match appropriate legal services with needs. We advocate a re-thinking of the roles of many justice system stakeholders, including the critical steps that legal educators can and should take to help close the rural-urban justice gap. Our hope is that this Article will inform and expand access-to-justice conversations so that they more intentionally address the legal needs of the vast rural reaches of our nation, thus furthering the ultimate goal of realizing access to justice for all Americans."

"President Barack Obama's judicial appointments broadly reflect the demographic characteristics of the current United States and law student populations.' I believe a diverse judiciary is critical to ensuring access to justice for all. In this Article, I want to focus particularly on how a diverse judiciary and increased civil legal aid can help bridge the gap between Blacks and Whites in terms of life expectancy and access to health care. I will first discuss the theoretical arguments in favor of a diverse judicial branch. I will then explain why a diverse judiciary - both historically and presently - is an access to justice issue, using the "health gap" between Blacks and Whites as a case study. Finally, I will provide some recommendations on how we can close the "health gap" with a more diverse judiciary."

"Active judging where judges step away from the traditional, passive role to assist those without counsel, is a central feature of recent proposals aimed at solving the pro se crisis in America's state civil courts. Despite growing support for active judging as an access to justice intervention, we know little, empirically, about how judges interact with pro se parties as a general matter, and even less about active judging. In response, this Article contributes new data and a new theoretical framework: three dimensions of active judging. These dimensions capture a judge's role in adjusting procedures, explaining law and process, and eliciting information. The study is based on a District of Columbia administrative court where most parties are pro se and active judging is permitted and encouraged. Using in-depth, qualitative interviews with judges in this court, the study asks: Are the judges active? If so, how? Do views and practices vary across the judges? What factors shape and mediate those views and practices? Results reveal that all judges in the sample are active in some way, but judges' practices vary in meaningful ways across the three dimensions. While all judges are willing to adjust procedures, they differ in whether and how they explain the law or elicit information. These variations are based on judges' different views about the appropriate role of a judge in pro se matters, views that are mediated by substantive law-burdens of proof in particular. The variations exist though the judges draw on shared sources of guidance an active judging: appellate caselaw, a regulatory body, and one another. This study suggests refinements to current thinking about active judging, offers new insights about the roles procedural rules and burdens of proof play in pro se litigation, and suggests that consistency in active judging may require more substantial guidance than that available to judges in this court."

"This Article seeks to assess our progress and reassess our goals concerning access to justice. It begins in Part I by summarizing the nature of the challenge. Although there is much we do not know about the scope of the problem, the data available suggest a shameful inadequacy of services for the poor and a declining commitment of federal funds to address it. The remainder of the Article explores the most plausible responses. Part II reviews the role of technology, self-help, and nonlawyer services. Part III analyzes the extent of pro bono contributions and what can be done to increase them. Part IV surveys the evolution and contributions of public interest law, and how best to support it. Part V concludes with an agenda for reducing the justice gap. It argues for greater involvement of legal educators and practitioners in expanding understanding of the problem and supporting the most cost-effective solutions."

"Part I of this Article reviews the longstanding debate as to whether pro bono is a duty or charity. If lawyers do have a duty to engage in public service and bridge the access to justice gap, it seems practical for the profession to go beyond triage and instead to focus on the root causes of the access to justice gap. More could be accomplished by focusing on the crises of economic injustice, racial justice, and democratic participation that brought us here. Part II more specifically articulates why these are the crisis areas, and offers some recommendations for addressing them. Part III explores the question of whether this requirement will meet its stated goals, particularly its most prominent goal of instilling in bar applicants a sense of professionalism that values public service. Ultimately, while a strong argument can be made for a pro bono duty, in practice the rule as currently formulated does not go far enough to achieve its stated goals. Only a more targeted program with more supervision, oversight, and feedback-and ultimately, mandatory pro bono for practicing lawyers-would do that."

"The National Center for Access to Justice (NCAJ) uses data, research, policy analysis and advocacy to expose how the justice system fails to stand up for equal justice and, all too often, functions as a source of oppression. Our work is rooted in the principle that all people should enjoy access to justice, which we describe as the meaningful opportunity to be heard, secure one’s rights and obtain the law’s protection."

"Making America's justice system more responsive to people's everyday civil legal needs through innovation, collaboration, and support of statewide efforts."

"The Resource Center for Access to Justice (ATJ) Initiatives serves judicial, private bar, and legal aid leaders who work together to provide people of low and modest income with meaningful access to their justice systems. The Center's two main focuses are: (1) Supporting the growth and development of state-based Access to Justice Commissions; and (2) Collecting and analyzing data on the various sources of funding for civil legal aid."

"Alliance for Justice (AFJ) is a national association of 120 organizations representing a broad array of civil rights, environmental, immigration, disability, consumer, workers, women’s, LGBTQ, and other groups committed to democratic values and the creation of an equitable, just, and free society."

"The National Center for State Courts promotes the rule of law and improves the administration of justice in state courts and courts around the world."

"The Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center is Howard University’s flagship institutional setting for the study and practice of civil rights, human rights, racial justice, and the law."

Collection of legal analysis and news articles by leading lawyers covering access to justice issues across the United States.

"Enhancing access to justice and promoting human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, including women, children and marginalized populations, are among the principal aims of ABA ROLI. ABA ROLI implements targeted strategies to promote human rights worldwide while simultaneously applying human rights and gender perspectives across all its programs and practice areas, in keeping with a general human rights-based approach to legal development. In doing so, ABA ROLI is guided by human rights principles enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights instruments."

This not-for-profit group housed by the Cornell Law School that promotes open access to law. Resources include "legal commentary and explanations contained in our WEX legal dictionary and encyclopedia, and the LII Supreme Court Bulletin, which provides analysis of cases that are about to be argued before the Supreme Court."

“Meaningful access to the courts, regardless of one’s resources, is a fundamental promise of our justice system. ACS promotes the availability of jury trials, class actions, and the adequate funding of civil legal aid, as means to ensuring our justice system is truly available to all. It also examines the barriers that prevent individuals and groups from vindicating their constitutional and statutory rights in court.”

From the flagship magazine of the American Bar Association, stay updated on legal news on access to justice issues

"Open Law Lab is the personal project of Margaret Hagan, to explore how law can be more engaging, more usable, and more useful. She began it while she was a law student Stanford, to document how students, lawyers, researchers, and professionals can build products and services to redesign law. The project’s broad mission is to document past, current, and possible initiatives that can increase access to justice through technology & design."

"This blog is about access to justice, and is designed for those in the field to obtain and discuss new ideas. We define access to justice broadly to include innovations in courts, the bar, legal aid and community that make it easier for people to obtain access to justice institutions, and to just results within those institutions. The blog may also contain material from unrelated fields that is thought relevant to our work in this area."