WASHINGTON (CN) — Congress must act to ensure all Americans can afford adequate legal representation, a group of experts told the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday, warning that failing to close the gap in access could undermine faith in the U.S. judicial system.
“The justice gap — which is a chasm, really — is indisputable,” Nathan Hecht, chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court, told lawmakers during a hearing. “People’s need for basic civil legal services greatly exceed their availability because of cost.”
Many low-income Americans are largely unable to get proper assistance for legal trouble. According to the Legal Services Corporation, a government-funded legal aid organization, around 92% of low-income Americans are forced to address civil disputes without proper legal representation. Roughly half of people who did not seek legal assistance said cost was a factor.
This lack of proper representation often means people facing issues that would traditionally be resolved through civil courts, such as landlord-tenant disputes, consumer abuse or domestic violence, can’t bring their case before a judge.
“The poor and people of limited means cannot afford lawyers, and so they are denied justice,” Hecht said. “It pains me to sit here after 43 years of judicial service and say … that the greatest system of justice in the history of the Earth is welshing on the promise of justice for all.”
Beyond a miscarriage of justice, limited access to legal representation can have other serious consequences for low-income Americans, said Nikole Nelson, CEO of the legal advocacy group Frontline Justice.
“Children can’t go to school, elders can’t get medical treatment, family homes are foreclosed upon and children are taken into child protection systems,” she told senators. “This lack of access undermines faith in our judicial institutions and our democracy.”
But for people facing the possibility of losing out on their right to justice, federal legal aid can be a lifeline.
Veronica Gonzalez, a former legal aid client who now sits on the board of directors of Legal Aid Chicago, detailed her own harrowing experience as a survivor of domestic violence who crossed state lines from Washington to Illinois to seek a restraining order against her abuser and to secure custody of her son.
An attorney was expensive, she explained, and it was difficult to find one who was willing to take on her complex case, which was litigated in both Washington and Illinois civil courts.
Legal aid organizations in both states — Legal Aid Chicago and the Northwest Justice Project — coordinated to represent her and ultimately the case was resolved in an Illinois court. The court gave her a two-year order of protection and sole custody of her son, Gonzalez said.
Her experience with legal aid organizations inspired her to join the board of the Chicago-based aid service which helped her escape domestic abuse.
“Many women in Chicago and across the country need legal help to end domestic violence but cannot afford private attorneys,” Gonzalez told lawmakers. “My legal case was complicated, and I was in danger. I was very fortunate that I was able to be represented by people like Legal Aid Chicago and the Northwest Justice Project.”
While legal aid organizations provide positive outcomes for Americans who otherwise could not afford legal assistance, federally funded programs remain woefully underfunded, said Ronald Flagg, president of the Legal Services Corporation.
In its budget for the 2024 fiscal year, Congress appropriated the organization roughly $560 million. That figure represents only a meager increase from the $400 million or so the organization received three decades ago in 1994, Flagg told the committee.
“Legal aid is so vastly underfunded that it is forced to turn away one person for every one they represent, not because the cases lack merit, and not because there aren’t serious consequences at stake, but for a lack of resources,” Nelson added. “Those who have dedicated their lives to doing this work are turning into gatekeepers who have to ration justice.”
Flagg said properly funding federal legal aid would pay dividends.
“Research shows that, for every dollar invested in civil legal aid, $3 to $13 is realized in return,” he said.
Nelson said employing community justice workers, non-lawyers who are trained to provide clients with simple legal help, can also help ease the burden on legal aid organizations. These people would not only provide resources to people who can’t afford legal representation but would also be community members with a more intimate understanding of the people they are assisting.
She pointed to her home state of Alaska, which she said has hired nearly 500 community justice workers that provide legal aid in some of the state’s most rural areas that previously had little or no access to such assistance.
“They’re addressing the simple problems that, if left unaddressed, would have devastating consequences,” Nelson said.
Members of the Judiciary Committee, for their part, stressed the urgency of addressing a lack of access to legal aid.
“We are demonstrably failing to deliver justice in this country,” said Delaware Senator Chris Coons, who pointed out that it had been roughly 15 years since the Senate had last held a hearing on the justice gap.
The Democratic senator lent his support to the idea of implementing community legal assistants at a larger scale. “With some out-of-the-box thinking, states and legal aid agencies can help more people with more issues when attorneys are in short supply.”
North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis agreed but said that Congress should work to ensure that people “across the ideological spectrum” were getting equal access to justice. Citing his experience as a real estate manager, the Republican argued that civil disputes, such as those between landlords and tenants, can cut both ways.
“How do we make sure that we protect landlords who are legitimately following the law and are getting abused by lawsuits?” Tillis said. “How do we strike that balance?”
This article was first published by Courthouse News on July 9, 2024