A staggering statistic on the barriers to justice facing Americans.
News Story (NATIONAL)
Rob Wile
Fusion
June 29, 2015
Full story
Tags: Access to Justice, Legal Needs, Pro Bono, Pro Se/Self-Help
Organizations mentioned/involved: National Center for Access to Justice (NCAJ) at Fordham Law School, ALM, Legal Services Corporation (LSC)
News Story (NATIONAL)
Rob Wile
Fusion
June 29, 2015
Full story
Tags: Access to Justice, Legal Needs, Pro Bono, Pro Se/Self-Help
Organizations mentioned/involved: National Center for Access to Justice (NCAJ) at Fordham Law School, ALM, Legal Services Corporation (LSC)
DETAILS
Which is why, according to the Justice Index, a project of the National Center for Access to Justice at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, there is only one lawyer for every 8,893 low-income Americans who qualify for legal aid.
The statistic is cited in a new report, “The Justice Gap,” from The American Lawyer. As an example, reporter Susan Beck writes that out of 30 eviction defendants who appeared at Cleveland’s municipal housing court on a recent morning, just one had a legal representative present.
The gap has always been large, Beck writes. But it has taken on new meaning now that the country’s top law firms are on outstanding financial footings, and could thus afford to provide much more support to groups that provide legal aid.