Courts and Access to Justice: Counsel, Time, Evidence, and Public Remedy

What is broken and why it matters

What we would change

1. 1

   Fund counsel where basic life is at stake. Civil representation should be guaranteed in proceedings that threaten a home, family integrity, physical safety, subsistence benefits, or freedom from institutional confinement. Legal aid receives stable national funding and local delivery authority.

2. 2

   Give public defense equal tools. Independent defense offices need workload limits, parity in pay and expert resources, investigators, conflict counsel, early appointment, client access, and authority to decline cases that cannot be handled competently.

3. 3

   Put every case on a visible clock. Congress and states should fund judgeships, clerks, interpreters, juries, and case management against published service standards. Long-pending cases trigger management review and a stated recovery plan. Urgent rights receive expedited paths.

4. 4

   Open the courthouse through several doors. Plain-language forms, guided filing, remote appearances, evening access, language and disability services, and courthouse help desks should coexist with paper, in-person hearings, and a person's right to confront consequential evidence.

5. 5

   End wealth barriers to a hearing. Filing fees, cash bonds, court debt, and jury-service costs need automatic waivers or support based on ability to pay. No one should lose a claim or defense because an administrative charge exceeded available cash.

6. 6

   Make evidence answerable. Parties must be able to inspect the source, method, error limits, and human sponsor for machine-generated or expert evidence. Courts should authenticate synthetic media, protect confrontation and discovery, and exclude evidence whose reliability cannot be tested at the stakes involved.

7. 7

   Protect public remedy and judicial independence. Forced arbitration and class-action waivers should not erase claims involving civil rights, employment, housing, essential consumer services, or widespread low-value harm. Judges need transparent assignment, binding disclosure, recusal review, reasoned decisions, and protection from partisan retaliation.