Public Involvement in Legal Reform - Brief Article

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), August, 1999

The number of state and local justice reform projects that enlist the aid of non-lawyers has increased from 34 in 1995 to 208 today, according to a report from the American Bar Association. "Justice Initiatives: The Courts, the Bar and the Public Working to Improve the Justice System" is based on a survey of chief justices of state supreme courts and presidents of state and local bar associations. It shows that bars and courts conduct a wide variety of justice improvement activities--1,106 in all.

Of these, the report identifies three categories of "justice initiatives" involving non-lawyers: 29 futures commissions anticipating long-term scenarios for the system; 129 justice commissions--ongoing general or specific activities developing solutions to justice problems; and 50 citizen conferences--forums generating two-way communication with non-lawyers.

The initiatives include improving access to justice for lower-income people; providing public information and law-related education; encouraging alternative dispute resolution; addressing racial or gender bias; lawyer professionalism, ethics, competency, and client relations; judicial independence, selection, compensation, and evaluation; improving juvenile justice; peer mediation in the schools; enhancing jury service; improving civil laws, practices, or procedures; seeking adequate funding for the courts; serving special needs--e.g., domestic abuse, AIDS, the disabled, the elderly, and the homeless; conducting surveys of the public, litigants, and jurors; dealing with alcohol and/or drug abuse; self-help for non-represented litigants; improving crime prevention; and user-friendly courts, customer service training, expanded hours, etc.