A Blueprint for Teaching Access to Justice
This blueprint is designed to provide online technical assistance, resources and encouragement to lawyers and legal educators who are interested in teaching law school courses on Access to Justice. We examine:
- The value of teaching Access to Justice in law school;
- The varied orientations and approaches taken by those who teach this topic;
- Course subject matter, including links to syllabi, which detail a variety of reading materials and student input; and
- Resources to assist lawyers to design and teach a course on Access to Justice.
The value of teaching Access to Justice
The ABA Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services believes that people of low and moderate incomes will have better access to justice for personal civil legal matters when lawyers are more knowledgeable about the policies, methods and barriers involved in delivering legal services to those clients.
Eighty percent of low income people and the majority of moderate income people have unmet legal needs. Lawyers are asked to respond to this crisis by providing pro bono legal services and contributing to programs that provide legal aid. However, a better understanding of issues involved in accessing justice will provide a wider opportunity for lawyers to address unmet legal needs. Law school courses on Access to Justice set the stage for a broad-based understanding of these issues. While some students who take these classes will become practitioners answering a call to serve low and moderate income clients, many others will be positioned to become leaders in legal movements to secure funding for legal aid, address policies for broader avenues of delivery and serve as architects for systems that enhance access. Those who are willing to design and teach courses on Access to Justice will exponentially expand the impact they individually can have on improvements for access.
The varied orientations to Access to Justice courses
Courses on Access to Justice and the delivery of civil legal services to those of moderate and low income are uncommon within the law school curriculum. They tend to be seminar courses included in the school’s offerings as a result of the grassroots efforts of those who teach them. Unlike more traditional law school courses, they lack a template for their design. As a result, faculty members who teach these courses have great latitude in their content and approach. The courses take a seminar approach, but have different opportunities for student involvement. Some courses are taught by tenured faculty, but more often by adjuncts and those in clinical settings. Unlike courses on poverty law, those on access to justice are focused on process. They tend to define the problem of limited access and examine policies and techniques to address solutions.
Access to Justice courses
Course Title: Access to Justice
School: University of New Mexico School of Law
Course Description/Objective: Students will explore the provision of civil legal services to the poor in the United States. What is the impact on individual clients, on the justice system, and on society when access to justice is denied to those who cannot afford a lawyer? What is the appropriate role of government, bar associations, individual lawyers, and law schools in providing legal services to those who cannot pay? The history of legal aid in the U.S. will be reviewed, followed by an examination of current legal services' delivery systems. Funding cuts and government-imposed restrictions placed on the work of legal aid lawyers will be discussed, along with new delivery methods that are emerging in response to the cuts and restrictions. Students will be invited to contemplate their own future role in the provision of legal services to under-represented clients. A major goal of the course is to take a critical view of the past and to encourage students to develop new and varied responses to the problem of access to the civil justice system. The grade will be based on class participation, an in-class presentation, and a research paper or project.
Syllabus: Posted Here
Course Title: Research Seminar on Access to Justice (Sociology 234/334)
School: Stanford University
Instructor: Rebecca L. Sandefur
Course Description/Objective: We investigate differences in when, how, and why people and other actors (e.g., organizations) interact with law and legal institutions. Along the way, we consider the functions and dysfunctions of modern legal systems. Topics include: cross-national differences in the rights of parties to disputes; the role of lawyers as gatekeepers and facilitators; the filtering process by which events such as injuries become the basis for legal claims; access to and use of courts. Readings range from case law to empirical studies.
Last Taught: Spring 2007
Syllabus: Posted Here
Course Title: Capstone Course – Access to Justice for the Middle Class
School: University of Toronto Faculty of Law
Instructor(s): Michael Trebilcock, Lorne Sossin and Judith McCormack
Course Description/Objective: It is widely accepted in Ontario today that, with some exceptions, only the very wealthy can afford access to non-criminal legal services. In his 2008 review of Ontario's legal aid system commissioned by the Ministry of the Attorney General, Professor Michael Trebilcock identified this acute lack of access to justice for the working poor and middle class in Ontario, particularly in the context of the civil justice system, as a growing and pressing social problem in this province. The Chief Justice of Canada and The Chief Justice of Ontario have both referred to the issue of Access to Justice for the Middle-Class as a "Crisis". This problem is evidenced most strikingly by the increasing phenomenon of unrepresented litigants in the civil justice system. Professor Trebilcock strongly recommended that both Legal Aid Ontario and the Government of Ontario accord a high priority to rendering the legal aid system more responsive to the needs of middle-class citizens of Ontario. To date, the government has not acted on this recommendation.
Students who take this course will undertake research aimed at answering the following kinds of questions:
- What are the most severe unmet civil legal needs in Ontario?
- What public and private solutions and delivery models designed to increase access to justice for the middle class currently exist in this province?
- What are the drawbacks and limitations of these existing instruments?
- What are some new and innovative alternatives to current delivery models and would other models currently in place in other jurisdictions in Canada and internationally be successful in Ontario?
- What if any aspects of the justice system require systemic reform in order to truly increase access to justice for the middle class in this province?
Course Title: Access to Justice Seminar (LAW E507)
School: University of Washington Law School
Instructor: Prof. Debbie Maranville
Course Description/Objective: Explores the legal, ethical and financial issues involved in providing legal services to low and moderate-income persons. Uses a combination of lectures and interactive discussions.
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Objectives are to:
- Identify barriers to justice and current initiatives to reduce or remove those barriers,
- Examine gaps between principle and practice in social justice,
- Critically reflect on personal passion for and commitment to social justice,
- Examine and foster personal and professional values that support social justice, and
- Inspire students to work in social justice or engage in meaningful pro bono after graduation.
Syllabus: Posted Here
Course Title: Access to Justice Seminar (LAW E507)
School: University of Washington Law School
Instructor: Prof. Debbie Maranville
Course Description/Objective: Explores the legal, ethical and financial issues involved in providing legal services to low and moderate-income persons. Uses a combination of lectures and interactive discussions.
-
Objectives are to:
- Identify barriers to justice and current initiatives to reduce or remove those barriers,
- Examine gaps between principle and practice in social justice,
- Critically reflect on personal passion for and commitment to social justice,
- Examine and foster personal and professional values that support social justice, and
- Inspire students to work in social justice or engage in meaningful pro bono after graduation.
Syllabus: Posted Here
Course Title: Access to Justice Seminar (LAW E507)
School: University of Washington Law School
Instructor: Prof. Debbie Maranville
Course Description/Objective: Explores the legal, ethical and financial issues involved in providing legal services to low and moderate-income persons. Uses a combination of lectures and interactive discussions.
-
Objectives are to:
- Identify barriers to justice and current initiatives to reduce or remove those barriers,
- Examine gaps between principle and practice in social justice,
- Critically reflect on personal passion for and commitment to social justice,
- Examine and foster personal and professional values that support social justice, and
- Inspire students to work in social justice or engage in meaningful pro bono after graduation.
Syllabus: Posted Here
Course Title: Access to Justice Seminar (LAW E507)
School: University of Washington Law School
Instructor: Prof. Debbie Maranville
Course Description/Objective: Explores the legal, ethical and financial issues involved in providing legal services to low and moderate-income persons. Uses a combination of lectures and interactive discussions.
-
Objectives are to:
- Identify barriers to justice and current initiatives to reduce or remove those barriers,
- Examine gaps between principle and practice in social justice,
- Critically reflect on personal passion for and commitment to social justice,
- Examine and foster personal and professional values that support social justice, and
- Inspire students to work in social justice or engage in meaningful pro bono after graduation.
Syllabus: Posted Here
Course Title: The Legal Profession: Delivery of Legal Services
School: Harvard Law School
Instructor: Jeanne Charn – Prof. Charn is Director of the Sacks Bellow Project and Lecturer on Law
Course Description/Objectives: Addresses the policy and professional responsibility implications of expanding access to the civil justice system in the US. Compares the US system to larger programs in peer nations. Examines the professional and institutional problems of allocating scarce resources among needy claimants and the difficulty in assuring quality and a strong consumer orientation in a subsidized delivery system. Explores the possible contours of a more comprehensive delivery system, which might include on-line legal advice and other expanded roles for the private bar, e.g. judicare, and mandatory pro bono, vouchers and low fee/”low-bono” services and pre-paid or legal insurance systems.
Last taught: Fall, 2008
Syllabus: Posted Here
Course Title: Access to Justice
School: S.J. Quinney College of Law, University of Utah
Instructor: Inda F. Smith – Prof. Smith is Clinical Program Director
Course Description/Objectives: Considers the availability of lawyers, societal support for free legal services and alternatives for helping unrepresented individuals. Examines the demographics and financial circumstances of low-income families and surveys their typical legal problems. The course includes a strong outreach component as students either develop papers to assist organizations serving the needy, or develop course materials about problems facing low and moderate-income persons and teach from these materials at community sites.
Last taught: Fall, 2006
Syllabus: Posted Here
Course Title: Access to Justice & Technology
School: Chicago-Kent College of Law
Instructor: Ronald W. Staudt – Prof. Staudt is a Profession of Law and Associate Vice President of Law, Business and Technology
Course Description/Objectives: Explores the parallel problems of lack of access to legal services by low income people on the one hand, and the flood of under-represented litigants appearing before state and federal courts on the other hand. Barriers to access to the justice system are examined and various solutions explored with special emphasis on the potential of the Internet and related technologies to improve access to justice. Students observe delivery models within the courts and legal services offices and populate the course web site with papers and bibliographic material.
Last taught: Spring, 2007
Syllabus: Posted Here
Course Title: Online Access to Justice
School: The John Marshall Law School, Chicago
Instructor: William Hornsby – Mr. Hornsby is an adjunct faculty member and Staff Counsel in the ABA Division for Legal Services
Course Description/Objectives:Examines the sources, resources and methods that use technology to provide legal information, advice and services to meet the needs of individuals, particularly those of low and middle-incomes. Issues include 1. the digital divide and the risk of two tiers of justice, 2. the role of the courts in providing legal services, 3. the impact of technology on the economics of the practice of law, and 4. the implications of technology-based dispute resolution mechanisms outside of the courts. The class includes guest speakers from around the country, including those who conduct and support legal needs studies, provide grants for legal aid technologies, coordinate online court services and design technological dispute resolution mechanisms.
Last taught: Fall, 2005
Syllabus: Posted Here
Course Title: Unbundling Legal Services
School: Hamline School of Law
Instructor: Forrest S. Mosten – Mr. Mosten is an adjunct faculty member, author of Unbundled Legal Services, a practitioner and mediator
Course Description/Objectives: The objectives of this course are 1. to learn the basic concepts of legal access for unrepresented litigants and unbundled legal services, 2. to learn basic lawyering skills to competently advise clients about the advantages and disadvantages of unbundling and to represent/coach otherwise unrepresented clients, and 3. to provide insight into policy considerations of the pro se movement and unbundled legal services and the relationship of these societal movements to legal access and ethics issues.
Last taught: Summer 2005
Syllabus: Posted Here
Course Title: Lawyering in the Public Interest
School: University of Pennsylvania Law School
Instructor: Louis S. Rulli, Practice Professor of Law and Clinical Director
Course Description/Objectives: Explores major lawyering themes that confront public interest lawyers in diverse practice areas and settings. Integrates theory and academic analysis with practice themes emerging from students' public interest work experiences during law school. Examines the unique challenges posed by community lawyering; the efficacy of competing service delivery models; the impact of scarcity of resources and high volume practice upon the practitioner; the empowerment of the disadvantaged and powerless through law and education; litigation and non-litigation strategies; legal and non-legal restrictions on the work of public interest lawyers; professional responsibility issues; the role of the private practitioner in the delivery of legal services to the poor; and current themes and timely issues relating to access to justice and public interest practice.
Last taught: Fall, 2008
Syllabus: Posted Here
Course Title: Sociology of the Legal Profession
School: University of California Davis School of Law
Instructor: Lisa R. Pruitt, Professor of Law
Course Description/Objectives: Takes a comprehensive look at the organization, operation, and ideology of the legal profession. While the primary focus is on the U.S. legal profession, some time is spent on comparative analysis with the legal professions in other countries. Recent trends in the organization and operation of large corporate law firms, legal services offices, public interest practice, corporate legal departments, and legal clinics are analyzed in terms of their impact on how services are delivered, how lawyers get clients, and the working lives of lawyers. Issues related to the rise of commercialism of the profession are examined. Addresses issues of access to legal education and the profession, with particular attention given to the growing presence of minorities and women in the profession. The course encourages students to look seriously at media and other images of lawyers.
Last taught: Spring, 2007
Syllabus: Posted Here
Another course worth noting for its innovation, even though not exclusively focused on access to justice, was taught in Spring, 2007:
- Self-Represented Litigation in Tennessee addresses issues under consideration by the Tennessee Supreme Court Task Force on the Study of Self-Represented Litigants. Issues include the extent of self-representation, the role of clerks, the role of the judiciary, limited scope of representation, self-help centers and the possibility of a Civil Gideon. Student projects involve simplified forms and instructions for domestic relations matters, a proposal for online assistance for self-represented litigants, guidelines for court clerks, and guidelines for lawyers providing limited scope representation. The course is taught at the University of Tennessee Law School by Prof. Carl Pierce, who also chairs the Tennessee Supreme Court’s Task Force.
Resources
Unlike traditional courses, there is no standard text or reading material for courses on Access to Justice. Instead, those teaching the courses assemble their own reading material, sometimes relying on books, but most often on reports and law review articles.
Books used for Access to Justice courses include:
The following online sites include sources relevant to teaching Access to Justice
The following individuals have agreed to provide assistance to those who are interested in discussing the development of Access to Justice courses:
Jeanne Charn, Harvard Law School; 617/495-5448; charn@law.harvard.edu
Ron Staudt, Chicago-Kent Law School; 312/906-5326; rstaudt@kentlaw.edu
Forrest Mosten, UCLA School of Law/Mediator and Collaborative Attorney; 310/473-7611, x101; mosten@mostenmediation.com
Mary Hotchkiss, University of Washington College of Law; 206/616-9333; hotchma@u.washington.edu
Will Hornsby, ABA, 312/988-5761; whornsby@staff.abanet.org
This web site is a work in progress. If you know of Access to Justice or similar courses and would like material added, please contact Will Hornsby at whornsby@staff.abanet.org
