Moving from Evidence‐Light to Evidence‐Based Practice: Randomized Control Trials in Family Law

• Date: 01 October 2019
• Author: Renee Danser,April Faith‐Slaker
• Published date: 01 October 2019
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fcre.12442

SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE

MOVING FROM EVIDENCE-LIGHT TO EVIDENCE-BASED PRACTICE:

RANDOMIZED CONTROL TRIALS IN FAMILY LAW

Renee Danser and April Faith-Slaker

In a resource-constrained environment, such as the access to justice field, it is critical to develop better knowledge about

effective and efficient service delivery. This article discusses the need for more rigorous evaluation and research in the field,

both in order to better reach individuals with legal needs and to maximize court resources. Various evaluation methodologies

will be explained, along with examples of current randomized control trial studies being conducted at the Harvard Access to

Justice Lab.

Key Points for the Family Court Community:

Court professionals, judges, legal aid providers, and policy makers would do well to increase the rigor with which

access to justice innovations are evaluated.

Randomized control trials can provide critical information about the effectiveness of court processes, legalassistance,

and resources developed to aid those without counsel, and they can help decision makers gauge whether those inter-

ventions are having unintended consequences on access to justice.

Rigorous research helps courts and providers maximize the use of limited resources in a waythat benefits court oper-

ations and enhances the well-being of those who appear before the court.

Keywords: Access to Justice; Court Reform; Evaluation; Evidence-Based; Randomized Control Trial;and Research.

As judges and practitioners in family law, you see cases processed through the court system and

the activities that take place in the interim. When given a moment to think about these cases and

these activities, you have all thought of ways to improve the case management, the outcomes for

the clients and litigants, or just the overall well-being of the individuals involved in the matter. In

some instances, you go beyond just thinking of these ideas—moving to advocacy for implementa-

tion, and then actual implementation. However, do you really know whether these interventions or

tools have the intended results? Likely you suspect that they do, otherwise you would not have

moved so vigilantly for their adoption; but you may not actually know.

The time is ripe for the access to justice field to embrace and implement a rigorous research

agenda. Within a context of ongoing resource constraints, the profession has been implementing

new technologies, service delivery mechanisms, and statewide strategic planning to engage all

stakeholders, in the most effective way possible, to provide some form of assistance to all people in

need. The profession’s aspirations are ambitious, especially in this context of resource scarcity.

So how do you know where to invest your time and energy? What are the most promising inno-

vations or approaches, and in what contexts do they have the highest impact? In what instances are

you providing extensive services when something less resource intensive would do the trick? The

process of shepherding an innovation or a new practice from idea to implementation necessitates

empirical inquiry in order to understand how and when these practices will be most effective. In a

context of chronic resource scarcity, it is imperative that the profession shift to evidence-based prac-

tices in order to maximize these resources.

Corresponding: rdanser@law.harvard.edu;afaithslaker@law.harvard.edu

FAMILY COURT REVIEW, Vol. 57 No. 4, October 2019 491–500

© 2019 Association of Family and Conciliation Courts