Objective 3.4: Expand Equal Access to Justice

Millions of people across the United States face barriers and inefficiencies in our legal systems that undermine trust in government and the rule of law.  The Department of Justice has a fundamental responsibility to expand equal access to justice for all, regardless of income, status, or identity.  Equal access to justice requires innovative and community-centered approaches, including through improving the Department’s use of technology, expanding language and disability access, and pursuing culturally competent approaches.  Equal access to justice also requires transparency, study, and constant evaluation through improved research and data collection to better understand access-to-justice gaps and better gauge whether programs are effective, equitable, and accessible.

Strategy 1: Increase Justice System Accessibility
While access to justice entails more than legal assistance, the Department recognizes the crucial difference that access to counsel can make in helping people understand and make decisions about legal issues.  Indeed, access to counsel is directly linked to better outcomes in legal proceedings.  While legal assistance is a constitutional right in criminal cases, public defenders handle extremely large caseloads that can jeopardize their ability to provide quality and timely representation.  The Department will reaffirm its commitment to supporting the highest standards in criminal defense, including through training, legal assistance, and sharing best practices with state, local, Tribal, and territorial counterparts.  We will also work to support public defense and to ensure that defenders have a voice on government commissions, committees, working groups, and in legislative and policy decisionmaking.

In addition, we will work to close the gap between the demand for and supply of quality legal assistance in noncriminal matters.  This includes coordinating interagency efforts, channeling federal grant funding, facilitating strategic partnerships outside government, and promoting policies to expand access to legal services in civil proceedings, including immigration and bankruptcy proceedings.  The Department will also promote pro bono programs and facilitate pro bono work by federal government employees.

Strategy 2: Accelerate Justice System Innovation
The Department will reinvigorate the Office for Access to Justice (ATJ), positioning it to advance statutory, policy, and practice changes that improve equal access to justice, with racial equity and economic justice at the forefront.  ATJ will work across the Department and across the executive branch—including through the Legal Aid Interagency Roundtable—to leverage federal resources to improve equal access to justice.  In particular, ATJ will focus on reducing structural barriers that hold back courts and legal service providers from successful transformation and will work to accelerate innovation in the administrative proceedings that the Department manages.  ATJ will also facilitate partnerships to achieve equal access to justice objectives, establishing strategic partnerships with state, local, Tribal, and territorial governmental actors, as well as social service providers, public defenders, civil legal aid providers, courts, community members, and legal technology experts.

The Department also recognizes that access-to-justice policies must extend beyond the judicial process.  We will expand research and innovative strategies to promote less lawyer-intensive and court-intensive solutions to legal problems.  We will promote fair and efficient systems that produce resolutions based on the facts and applicable law and ensure that participants are heard, treated fairly, and understand outcomes.  In addition, we will seek to ensure that the Department’s grants, and the services and programs funded by those grants, further equal access to justice. 

Strategy 3: Safeguard Justice System Accountability
The Department will advance equal access to justice by promoting the accountability and integrity of justice systems.  ATJ will work to combat economic barriers, such as unjust fines and fees, and will pursue equal access to economic justice systems, including in bankruptcy, consumer protection, and eviction and foreclosure proceedings.  ATJ will strive to remove obstacles that prevent meaningful access to counsel and courts for members of underserved communities and will oppose laws and policies that criminalize poverty.  ATJ will also pursue uniformity in Department- and government-wide policies and litigation positions relating to equal access to justice.  In particular, ATJ will lead interagency efforts to pursue equal access to justice by housing the Executive Director and staff of the Legal Aid Interagency Roundtable and will serve as the central authority in the executive branch on access to justice before international and multilateral organizations.

Key Performance Indicators:

• Percent of eligible individuals represented by consistent defense counsel throughout that individual’s justice system involvement 
• Number of Justice Department strategic partnerships established by the Office for Access to Justice

Contributing DOJ Components: CRT, ENRD, USTP, ATJ, EOIR, OJP, OTJ, OVW, JMD