Access to Justice: Internet Resources

Access to Justice Author (A2J Author®) is a cloud based software tool that delivers greater access to justice for self-represented litigants by enabling non-technical authors from the courts, clerk’s offices, legal services organizations, and law schools to rapidly build and implement user friendly web-based document assembly projects. A2J Author is available for free to interested court, legal services organizations, and other non-profits for non-commercial use.

The Access to Justice (A2J) Lab at Harvard Law School advances the required transformation by creating randomized control trials to evaluate potential solutions in access to justice and then generalizing results into actionable lessons. The A2J Lab creates knowledge, constructs best practices, and trains current and future scholars and practitioners to transform the U.S. justice system.

Works to support the growth and development of state-based access to justice commissions and collects data on funding sources for legal aid.

Since the founding of the American Bar Foundation (ABF), ABF scholars have been deeply engaged with fundamental questions of access to justice. Faculty Fellow, Rebecca L. Sandefur's, research on access to justice and civil legal needs continues this tradition through innovative empirical research and symposia that bridges the divides of scholarship and practice. Professor Sandefur's research produces new knowledge that informs our basic understanding of law and legal processes and is a powerful resource for policy makers and service providers as they seek to respond to the legal needs of the public today.

The Center on Court Access to Justice is a project of the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) . The Center provides resources to help judges and courts advance access to justice.

Originally opened in 2010, the Office closed in 2018. Attorney General Merrick Garland reestablished the office in October 2021.

Works to gather information from around the world on barriers to access to justice and ways to overcome these barriers.

LawHelp.org has been created for people living on low-incomes and the legal organizations that serve them. LawHelp.org provides referrals to local legal aid and public interest law offices, basic information about legal rights, court forms, self-help information, court information, links to social service agencies, and more in your state. LawHelp.org includes a network of 25 statewide legal information portals built on the LawHelp.org platform. LawHelp.org was developed and is maintained by Pro Bono Net in partnership with hundreds of nonprofit legal aid, pro bono, court-based programs and libraries across the country.

Launched in 2012, LAIR includes more than a dozen federal agencies working to raise awareness of how civil legal aid can help advance many federal objectives. The group was formally established in 2015 after a Presidential Memorandum issued by President Obama. LAIR is staffed by the DOJ Office for Access to Justice.

An independent nonprofit established by Congress to provide financial support for civil legal aid to low-income Americans.

Located at Fordham Law School, the NCAJ uses data, research, policy analysis, and advocacy to demonstrate how the justice system does not stand up for equal justice and often acts as a tool of oppression.

Resource guide that looks at international efforts to both study and improve access to justice.

Founded in 2003, this organization works to encourage, support, and coordinate advocacy to expand recognition and implementation of a right to counsel for low-income people in civil cases involving food, shelter, safety, health, and child custody.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) outlines the importance of access to justice as part of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and various sectors of society. Links to publications and events are provided.

The Open Government Partnership (OGP) works to increase responsiveness, accountability, and inclusion into all systems of justice. The OGP includes over 78 countries and increasingly, local governments, as well as civil society organizations.

The Self-Represented Litigation Network (SRLN), a leading voice in the national movement for 100% access to civil justice, supports justice system professionals focused on the question of how best to reform ALL aspects of the legal system (courts, legal aid, the bar, and non-legal partners) so that SRLs experience the courts (and indeed the legal system) as a consumer-oriented environment guided by the principles of equal protection and due process. SRLN is a resource center that provides toolkits, evaluation, implementation guidance and thought leadership; we are a network that connects and supports reform-minded leaders throughout the country; and offer a geospatial data and analysis hub for the civil justice space.

UNDP supports national partners to address security and justice through a human rights-based approach, to nurture public participation and trust, and to expand access to justice, especially for women, youth, persons with disabilities, marginalized groups and displaced communities.

The World Justice Project is an independent agency that works to advance the rule of law around the world.