Momentum is building to fix our legal system. Let’s seize it.

We like to say we are all equal under the law. And in terms of our rights, that may be true, but it’s flat wrong when it comes to access to justice. Each year millions of Americans face a legal world of confusing online privacy policies and employment contracts, painful family or small business disputes, struggles with insurers and service providers, evictions and foreclosures, and more. What unites people, from poor to upper-middle class, is the fact that the vast majority muddle through all of this without any legal help.

Why in a world with so much law do so few have access to affordable legal help? The answer is very simple: lawyers cost too much and yet there’s no good alternative.

Finally, a few states are taking steps to change this. As members of a joint Supreme Court/Utah Bar task force to address the access-to-justice gap in Utah, we recently recommended reimagining how legal services should be regulated—recommendations that the Utah Supreme Court unanimously endorsed. And the momentum is building, as other states including Arizona and California, also consider bold recommendations for change.