Access to Justice, 0916 COBJ, Vol. 45, No. 9
| Author | Noah Patterson , Shelly Dill, J. |
Noah Patterson , Shelly Dill, J.
Access to Justice Series: A Preview
This article discusses access to justice efforts in Colorado as well as the upcoming Access to Justice series in the Colorado Lawyer. This series will explore the justice gap, discuss access to justice advances, and encourage further creative solutions to access to justice problems within the state.
An Old Problem in Need of New Solutions
There is a significant civil legal justice gap across the United States.1 Colorado citizens continue to experience this gap despite efforts that have been undertaken to ensure that their needs are being met.2 Recent legal needs studies indicate that less than one-fifth of low-income individuals get the legal assistance they need.[3] And it is not just low-income individuals who have trouble accessing our legal system. Legal services are also cost prohibitive for many middle-income households.4
Of course, this is not a new problem. Access to justice issues are as old as the rule of law. But the fact that they are “old problems” does not make them less important to overcome. Access to justice is critical to the inherent fairness and basic principles of our legal system. Therefore, the Colorado legal community is committed to finding innovative and creative ways to reduce the access to justice gap.
The Colorado Lawyer’s Access to Justice series will highlight the groundbreaking programs that leaders in Colorado are implementing and provide information on additional ideas and mechanisms available to help close the access to justice gap. If the solutions were easy, this gap would no longer exist. The challenge is to acknowledge the innovative and creative ideas that are being implemented now while exploring solutions yet to come.
Access to Justice Efforts in Colorado
Colorado’s access to justice leaders have been focused on this crisis for many years. Below are some recent efforts that have been implemented to increase access to justice throughout the state.
Access to Justice Commission
In 2003, the Colorado Supreme Court, the CBA, and the Statewide Legal Services Group collaborated t o create the Colorado Access to Justice Commission.5 Since then, the Commission has developed, coordinated, and implemented policy initiatives to expand access to and enhance the quality of justice in civil legal matters. Specifically, the Commission has coordinated access to justice hearings across the state and published reports on the state of access to justice in Colorado that have been used to successfully inform our legislature and others of access to justice issues in our state and the need for additional funding.[6] Hearings in both 2007 and 2013 resulted in increased funding for Colorado Legal Services and other programs.
Local Access to Justice Committees
The Access to Justice Commission has also worked closely with the local access to justice committees, which are now operational in all but one of the judicial districts in our state. These committees are...
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