State Bar of Wisconsin

Access to Justice Study Committee

This Committee was appointed by President Guerin to prepare a legal needs study that would provide policy makers with better information about the scope and impact of the problem of access to justice in Wisconsin along with recommendations about how all of the stakeholders in the justice system could work together to do a better job of funding services. Low and moderate income Wisconsin households will be the focus of the study.

• Overview
• Committee Charge

News & Updates

• Bridging the Justice Gap: Wisconsin's Unmet Legal Needs, March 2007
• Wisconsin Client Stories Form
• Request for Proposals 106 KB (closed February 20, 2006)
• Final Questionnaire 208 KB (March 31, 2006)
• Committee studies unmet civil legal needs; focuses on increasing access to justice for all in Wisconsin Inside the Bar, November 1, 2005
• Access to Justice Study Committee poised to begin research project The Third Branch, Fall 2005 - Wisconsin Court System newsletter includes an article at page 14 about the Committee's work. 928 KB

Committee Resources

• ABA Summary: An article published by the ABA of the needs identified in many of the legal needs studies done by other states. 35.5 KB
• Access to Justice Support Project: The National Legal Aid & Defender Association has gathered together materials from a number of the civil legal needs studies done in other states as well as related information regarding such efforts.
• Bellow-Sacks Report: "Civil Legal Assistance for all Americans," by Jeanne Charn and Richard Zorza from the Bellow-Sacks Access to Civil Legal Services Project at Harvard Law School, provides a provocative prescription for full access to basic legal help for low and moderate income families. 300 KB
• Census facts: The U.S. Census Bureau provides a nice snapshot of Wisconsin from a demographic standpoint
• Circuit Court Statistics: The Wisconsin court system provides some basic data on the primary trial courts.
• Commission on the Delivery of Legal Services: A 1996 State Bar report that outlines the state of delivery of legal services in Wisconsin and solutions for improved access to legal services for low-income residents.
• LSC Documenting the Justice Gap: This September 2005 report quantifies the impact of funding cuts on the ability of Legal Services Corporation grantees to serve the needs of low income Americans. It includes data on the numbers of eligible clients they were unable to serve due to the lack of adequate funding. 311 KB
• LSC Grantee Information for Wisconsin: Provides client service information for Legal Action of Wisconsin and Wisconsin Judicare for matters they handled under their Legal Services Corporation grants. Because these organizations also receive funding from other sources (e.g. United Way and WisTAF), the LSC reports are not a complete picture of the services they provide.
• Pro Se Working Group: This 2000 report from a group assembled by the Office of the Chief Justice was a response to the findings from a number of circuit court surveys on the prevalence of unrepresented parties in the circuit courts.
• Public Trust & Confidence in the Courts: This 2000 report, sponsored by the Office of the Chief Justice, the Director of State Courts, the League of Women Voters and the State Bar of Wisconsin summarizes the findings from a number of focus groups and proposed efforts to remedy the issues identified.
• Planning and Policy Advisory Committee:  Strategic planning body for the Wisconsin Court System.

Links

• Access to Justice: A wonderful book by Prof. Deborah Rhode at Stanford Law School on the state of the justice system for those who can't afford lawyers.
• CLASP: The Center on Law & Social Policy has some interesting reports on a variety of issues facing the civil legal services community nationwide.
• Lawyers and Legal Advocates: Prof. Bert Kritzer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in his book, Legal Advocacy: Lawyers and Nonlawyers at Work provides the first systematic comparative study of the work of lawyers and nonlawyers that evaluates the quality of representation provided by lawyers and nonlawyers. The book describes lawyers and nonlawyer advocates at work in four different legal settings: unemployment compensation claims appeals, Social Security disability appeals, state tax appeals, and labor grievance arbitrations.
• LSC: The Office of Program Performance has assembled a nice library of resource materials on legal services offices and issues.
• Paths to Justice: Documents the results of groundbreaking research on how, when and why individuals access the justice system in the U.K. The research was conducted by Hazel Genn, Professor of Socio-Legal Studies at University College, London.
• Pro Bono on WisBar: Opportunities to provide legal services to low-income residents.
• Texas: Texas Access to Justice Commission website containing their reports and ongoing activities.
• Washington: Materials and reports on the activities of the Washington Access to Justice Board.