Free Program in DC on Closing the Civil Justice Gap: June 22, 1-2:30pm
By: Steve Grumm
The Center for American Progress, including our friend and PSLawNet Blog contributor Joy Moses, is hosting a program called “Closing the Justice Gap – Bridging the Divide Between People Who Need Legal Services and Those Who Have Access to Them” at 1pm on June 22. Some background info from CAP (and click the foregoing link for registration info):
There’s a huge gap today between the legal needs of low-income people and the capacity of the civil legal assistance system to meet those needs. Less than 20 percent of poor Americans’ legal needs are being met, requiring unrepresented litigants to navigate complex and often unfriendly court systems. There’s also severe inequality among states in legal aid funding.
Our country’s “pro se crisis” comes at a time when the need for civil legal assistance—to help people facing foreclosures, evictions, wrongful terminations, child custody, and other challenges—has never been higher.
Please join us at this special program co-sponsored by the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy and Center for American Progress for a conversation with law scholars and legal aid experts about how we can overcome the access-to-justice gap at a time of rising need—and how policymakers should decide where to most effectively direct scarce resources.
