Page 18 - Impact: Collected Essays on the Threat of Economic Inequality

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Community courts in locations where residents of poor communities have difficulties traveling to traditional courts would provide better access to justice . Mobile courts,59 video appearances, 60 more online interactive programs,61 and electronic filing would also make it easier for poor people to commence their cases, file answers, and make their court dates . While impoverished individuals may not have Internet or home computers, 43 percent had smartphones in 2013 .62 Access to computers could be obtained in public libraries, places of worship, and other accessible facilities . The use of technology, particularly with smartphones, can bring more justice to the poor .
Integrating social service professional services into systems for resolving legal problems is essential for impoverished communities . Preventative measures would help to keep legal issues from ripening . Social service professionals could be armed with diagnostic tools and legal information to assist in issue spotting and obtaining resources to head off encounters with the legal system . Courthouses should open their doors and house relevant social service agencies . In New York City, courts host social workers and other workers who provide services in the courthouses to those receiving or needing public assistance, the mentally ill, domestic violence victims, and the elderly . The problem-solving court concept must be expanded from the criminal side to the civil side .
Community outreach and engagement is required to address the distrust that impoverished individuals have for the legal system . Speaker bureaus, community law days, tours of courts by schools, and library programs could go a long way to building trust .63
None of the solutions to the challenges faced by impoverished individuals in the justice system can succeed, however, without the opening of minds and hearts of the prime movers of the system: judges, lawyers, non-judicial employees, and the bodies that fund civil legal services and courts . Unless we destroy our current adversarial system completely, we must have funding for civil legal services for every poor person who needs full representation . Other forms of legal assistance must be provided when full representation is not required . Anything less will doom the United States to continued low rankings on access-to-justice surveys and continue to grow distrust of the legal system in poor communities . Courts require adequate funding to meet the needs of the public, especially impoverished communities . Most importantly, there must be an awakening by judges and non-judicial personnel to the new reality of the legal system . The new reality is that millions of unrepresented, culturally diverse, and low-literacy individuals will continue to flood the courts . A great many of these litigants will be poor . They often do not receive justice . Funding is not required to start the change . Leadership is, however, necessary to insure that courts understand that the needs of poor people they serve are vast and different . To accomplish this
59 Nicholas Spangler, Courthouse on Wheels Makes Rounds in Miami-Dade County, The ledger (April 21, 2003, 7:21 am), http://www.theledger.com/article/20030421/NEWS/304210365.
60 Video Technologies Resource Guide, naTional cenTer for sTaTe courTs, http://www.ncsc.org/Topics/Technology/ Video-Technologies/Resource-Guide.aspx.
61 A2J Author® is an example of an online software program geared toward improving access to justice for self- represented litigants. See A2J Author®, iiT chicago-kenT college of law, il insT. of Tech., https://www.kentlaw. iit.edu/institutes-centers/center-for-access-to-justice-and-technology/a2j-author. The New York State Unified Court System uses A2J Author® to produce DIY forms.
62 Aaron Smith, Smartphone Ownership 2013, pew research cenTer (2003), http://www.pewinternet.org/2013/06/05/ smartphone-ownership-2013/.
63 Courts and Community Center, newyorkcourTs.gov, http://www.nycourts.gov/ip/nya2j/Courts_Community_ Center/index.shtml.
Impact: Collected Essays on the Threat of Economic Inequality