Page 94 - Impact: Collected Essays on Expanding Access to Justice

filling the Gaps: Another Way to Tackle the Access to Justice Crisis
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Karen simmons1
Working in public interest law, which intersects with social services and social justice, I have had the opportunity to do more than just handle an individual client’s case or reach beyond my individual caseload . I work in this profession to provide greater support and engagement for communities in need . Access to justice as a societal framework is a logical extension when you are immersed in this work . Many access to justice work groups and task forces that encompass our judiciary, state, city, and affinity bar associations, along with many law schools, public interest, and legal services programs collaborate to work on the thorny issues that plague and daunt the disenfranchised .2 The areas that immediately come to mind when we talk about access issues are food and income security, housing, domestic violence, and many family issues . Over the years, the various entities focused on access to justice with the bench, the bar, schools, and public sector stakeholders have continued to expand our reach in providing access to legal assistance through self-help tools, pro bono attorneys or trained non-legal professionals and clinics . Access to justice is also stretching to address long- persistent problems such as human trafficking, advocacy for LGBT rights on many fronts, consumer debt, and the needed support for our elderly and veterans .3
However, there are grey areas where the lack of access to justice does not fit into an existing category or assistance area . The lack of access or gaps in access have been created by the actions or inactions of the systems that are designed to support or care for the person they are now negatively impacting . Those gaps constitute the continuing frontier in tackling barriers to access to justice . There have been great strides made in meeting access to justice needs, but even as we make progress on one issue, many more rise up to challenge us . How do we see the gaps before us so we can prevent them from becoming barriers that contribute to further marginalizing communities trying to access justice?
This essay considers three populations for whom access to justice may be limited because of these gaps: children in foster care; adults facing child protective investigations; and children who have experienced “broken adoptions,” in that they were adopted out of foster care but did not remain in the adoptive home . The essay explores the gaps in access to justice faced by these populations by considering the examples of Kay and Ollie,4 both of whom had experiences with the child welfare system as children and as adults .
1 Karen Simmons is the Executive Director of The Children’s Law Center (CLC), a not for profit law firm that represents children in custody, guardianship, visitation, paternity, child support, family offense domestic violence and connected child protective cases in family court and the Integrated Domestic Violence Parts in Supreme Court.
2 The American Bar Association’s Resource Center for Access to Justice (ATJ) Initiatives serves judicial, private bar, and legal aid leaders who work together to provide people of low and modest income with meaningful access to their justice systems. The Center’s two main focuses are: (1) “Supporting the growth and development of state- based Access to Justice Commissions,” and (2) “Collecting and analyzing data on the various sources of funding for civil legal aid.” Resource Center for Access to Justice Initiatives, A.b.a., http://www.americanbar.org/groups/ legal_aid_indigent_defendants/initiatives/resource_center_for_access_to_justice.html.
3 For examples of access to justice resources from the New York State unified Court System, see New York State Courts Access to Justice Program, https://www.nycourts.gov/ip/nya2j/index.shtml; Courthelp, http://www. nycourts.gov/courthelp/.
4 All the names in this document have been changed.
Impact: Collected Essays on Expanding Access to Justice