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Full-Text Articles in Law
A2j Summit Collection Contributors, David Udell
A2j Summit Collection Contributors, David Udell
Fordham Law Review Online
A compilation of biographies for the authors and participants in this Collection.
All Rise For Civil Justice, Martha Bergmark
All Rise For Civil Justice, Martha Bergmark
Fordham Law Review Online
Equal justice under law is an American ideal. But every year, millions of people lose their cases in civil courts, not because they have done something wrong, but because they do not have the information or legal help they need to make their case. The United States civil justice system must be reformed so that it works for everyone, not just for the wealthy and the represented. For guidance, advocates of civil justice reform should look to the movement for criminal justice reform, which has successfully raised awareness and galvanized coalitions to effect policy change. I eagerly await the case …
The Role Of Data In Organizing An Access To Justice Movement, James Gamble, Amy Widman
The Role Of Data In Organizing An Access To Justice Movement, James Gamble, Amy Widman
Fordham Law Review Online
reminds us that civil justice reform has to start with compelling human stories. She’s right. Building a movement requires drawing in the care and effort of those who previously had not seen the problem. A story of a mother and her family unjustly evicted from their home, of an older gentleman whose life savings are unjustly taken, or of a father fighting for visitation rights unjustly denied: each of these personal stories is an outrage and will often generate anger in the listener. Stories lead those who do not live the injustices of our civil justice system every day to …
A National Movement For Access To Justice Must Be Holistic, Justine Olderman, Runa Rajagopal
A National Movement For Access To Justice Must Be Holistic, Justine Olderman, Runa Rajagopal
Fordham Law Review Online
Jazmine Headley is one of many parents across New York City who depends on childcare benefits in order to work and to be the best single parent she can be to her one-year-old son. When her son’s daycare reported that it was no longer receiving payment from the city-issued childcare voucher, Jazmine’s only option was to take a day off of work to go to her local benefits center and figure out what was wrong. Making the trip to the benefits center meant that Jazmine had to miss a full day’s wage, and navigate the bureaucratic public assistance system, all …
Integrating The Access To Justice Movement, Lauren Sudeall
Integrating The Access To Justice Movement, Lauren Sudeall
Fordham Law Review Online
Last fall, advocates of social change came together at the A2J Summit at Fordham University School of Law and discussed how to galvanize a national access to justice movement—who would it include, and what would or should it attempt to achieve? One important preliminary question we tackled was how such a movement would define “justice,” and whether it would apply only to the civil justice system. Although the phrase “access to justice” is not exclusively civil in nature, more often than not it is taken to have that connotation. Lost in that interpretation is an opportunity to engage in a …
Don't Go It Alone, Ariel Simon, Sandra Ambrozy
Don't Go It Alone, Ariel Simon, Sandra Ambrozy
Fordham Law Review Online
Civil legal challenges cut across an astonishing range of headline-making social issues. And so, while it is possible to make a compelling case for “access to justice” without tying it to issues of inequality, mobility, race, and equity, that is no way to build or ally with a movement. Access to justice should not just be about “justice” in a narrow legalistic sense, but in the way that the broader world understands it and people feel it, driven by imperatives such as: expanding opportunities for underserved populations; creating legal systems that protect the most vulnerable; and building institutions and structures …
Access To Legal Help Is A Human Service, Jo-Ann Wallace
Access To Legal Help Is A Human Service, Jo-Ann Wallace
Fordham Law Review Online
We are in a pivotal, transformational moment for justice reform in the United States. One of the key strategies undergirding the transformation is a redefinition of interrelated systems that can work together to improve lives. This includes defining access to legal help as an integral part of human services systems.
Striking A Match, Not A Pose, For Access To Justice, Gillian K. Hadfield
Striking A Match, Not A Pose, For Access To Justice, Gillian K. Hadfield
Fordham Law Review Online
One of the things that persistently puzzles and frustrates me in my work on access to justice is just how hard it is to light a fire under anyone about this issue. And I do not think that we are going to make progress on access to justice—to start a movement—until that fire is lit.
"What Do We Want!"?, Rebecca L. Sandefur
"What Do We Want!"?, Rebecca L. Sandefur
Fordham Law Review Online
If asked, most Americans would very likely say that they would rather have “justice” than something like “injustice.” And if asked what “justice” means, many would have an answer. Some responses would name abstract ideals from one religious or cultural tradition or another. One of this type that is particularly dear to me speaks of letting the oppressed go free and breaking every yoke. But other answers about the meaning of justice would be more concrete: “my son wouldn’t be in jail”; “I could pay my hospital bills”; “somebody would help me with this problem.” These definitions of justice reflect …
Building The Access To Justice Movement, David Udell
Building The Access To Justice Movement, David Udell
Fordham Law Review Online
There are innumerable individual problems of access to civil justice. Civil justice, or its absence, will often determine whether people can keep their homes, their family relationships, their health and well-being, their actual safety, their jobs, and their opportunity for a fair resolution of so many more of the challenges that life presents. There are presently many important efforts that enable people to obtain justice, both through the direct provision of legal services and through the broader pursuit of systemic reforms, such as securing and expanding civil rights to counsel, expanding roles for non-lawyers to empower individuals and communities, making …