S. Access to Justice: Current Issues and Challenges

Communities and courts across the country are increasingly focused on ways to ensure access to justice. Litigants who come from historically under-represented communities face unique challenges when accessing the courts and trying to fit their cases into traditional legal doctrines. This course will examine both the structural obstacles that exist, and the substantive developments that have increased access to the courts. It will examine some innovative approaches, including in family and criminal law, and explore the practical and ethical issues raised by problem solving courts. It also will examine efforts to create a civil Gideon for litigants, and to increase the availability of lawyers in cases where indigent litigants traditionally have been pro se. Topics to be covered include bail and criminal justice reform, LGBTQ rights, access to courts for people with disabilities, and initiatives to achieve racial and economic justice.

The course will discuss how change has been achieved in some of these areas and explore the dynamic between outside advocacy to achieve systemic change and individual rulings in specific cases. Depending on the court's operating status, students may visit one of the community/ problem solving courts or other NYC courtrooms as part of this class.