Access to Justice

We work to improve access to justice, with a particular focus on ensuring that low-income individuals have the tools they need to solve problems.

Poverty Justice Solutions helps provide lawyers for low-income New Yorkers in Housing Court. Legal Hand trains community volunteers to offer their neighbors free access to legal information. Our community justice centers work to render the justice system more transparent and responsive, actively engaging residents, merchants, and others in the process of doing justice.We work to improve the cultural responsiveness of courts in domestic violence cases and assist parents in child support cases. And our research department documents the legal needs of specific neighborhoods and produces recommendations for streamlining cumbersome legal processes, such as the payment of bail.

Initiatives

Legal Hand

Legal Hand empowers community residents to support their neighbors with the legal information they need.
Poverty Justice Solutions

Poverty Justice Solutions seeks to improve Housing Court in New York City by training new lawyers to represent tenants.
Price of Justice Initiative

The Price of Justice Initiative helps jurisdictions address the disparate impact of fines and fees on defendants who cannot afford them.

Publications & Digital Media

Publication
Navigating the Bail Payment System in New York City: Findings and Recommendations

by Elise White, Melissa Labriola, Ashmini G. Kerodal, Elise Jensen, and Michael Rempel

This report documents the bail payment process in New York City courts and correctional facilities and provides 17 recommendations to improve practices. Based on these recommendations, the city is implementing a number of solutions detailed here.

Access to Justice, Bail Reform
Audio
How the Law Intersects with Everyday Life: Promoting Access to Civil Justice

by Robert V. Wolf

Legal Hand seeks to help people resolve civil justice issues before they need lawyers and court intervention. In our latest New Thinking episode, learn about how the program works, how civil justice issues impact different communities, and why it can be hard to get basic legal information to the people who need it.

Access to Justice
Publication
Consistency During the Court Process: The San Francisco Public Defender’s Checklist Project Pilot Study

by Elise Jensen, Michela Lowry, Emily Gold LaGratta, and Melissa Labriola

Research has shown that checklists improve consistency and reduce the likelihood that critical steps are overlooked in technical fields such as aeronautics and medicine. The current study explores whether similar tools might promote the consistency and quality of legal representation among often overburdened and under-resourced public defense attorneys.

Access to Justice, Procedural Justice

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News

Legal Hand Empowers Low-Income Queens—And Wants Help

August 2, 2018
Queens Daily Eagle

Legal Hand—our free storefront legal information centers—helps residents in vulnerable New York City neighborhoods with legal problems related to issues such as housing and family law. In Queens, as this profile reports, immigration questions are increasing in number, and urgency.
Legal Hand Event Provides a Helping Hand to Immigrants

January 27, 2018

Legal Hand, our storefront legal information program, hosts a "Sanctuary for All" event with nearly 20 groups providing social and legal services to immigrants in Queens, New York.

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