Thread by @kristensonday

0/ GM! Starting the week with my weekly #atj trends report bc @LSC_tweets’s 2022 Justice Gap Study came out last Thurs. It’s one of my favorite ATJ publications, and this was intense. Buckle up for key findings and some big opportunities:

1/ Sec 1: TL;DR is that *92%* of low-income Americans' civil legal issues go inadequately or un-met, up from 86% in 2017. LSC orgs turn away ~50% of those eligible bc of a lack of capacity. Raises 2 Qs immediately: how do we increase capacity and how do we help those turned away?

2/ Sec 2: Of the 50M Americans that have incomes <125% of the federal poverty lev (FPL, $17.5k indie or $43.5k/fam), those disproportionately affected are rural, Black/Hispanic, women, and/or without a college education. How are we incorporating cultural differences in solutions?

3/ Sec 3: While 74% of low-income households experienced 1 legal prob, 62% experienced 2+, and 39% 5+ (!). How are we thinking about creating holistic solutions that help people address many issues at once, rather than disaggregate through differing resources, forms, courts, etc?

4/ Sec 3: Top areas of need are consumer (50% of households), health care (39%), income maintenance (34%), and housing (33%). How might we prioritize solutions based on frequently and seriousness of impact, as well as partner with relevant organizations (like MLP) to address?

5/ Sec 3: "Households that experience issues with eviction or domestic violence are disproportionately more likely to face multiple problems.” How can we preempt issues that we know lead to (or stem from) 2nd and 3rd order consequences? How can we collaborate w/other authorities?

6/ Sec 4: Those in need sought help for only 19% of their collective civil legal problems in the past year, notably for more ‘legal-seeming’ issues like wills, family, and safety. How might we better explain what issues ARE legal and which ones lawyers can actually address?

7/ Sec 4-5: Why didn't they seek help? 74% of folks didn’t know if a lawyer could help resolve their problem, 72% of folks aren’t sure or don’t believe the system will treat them fairly, and 53% fear the cost of seeking help/addressing their problems.

8/ Sec 5: The impact differential in likelihood to seek legal help, by income (from 125% of Federal Poverty Line (FPL) to 400% FPL) across all problems is only 8-12%. This gap doesn’t just affect low-income Americans.

9/ Sec 5: Yet, the main differentiator is how higher-income folks expect to be treated by the system and increased confidence in their ability to afford a lawyer. How we might inspire greater confidence in the system? How might we be more transparent around pricing and options?

10/ Sec 6: Last year, low-income Americans brought nearly 1.9 million legal issues to LSC funded LSOs. Housing and family/safety issues made up the majority of problems receiving legal help, and ~500k issues were resolved. LSC orgs and their teams are heroes!

11/ AND, we need to do much better. The solutions are complicated and not. Some of my recs for going back to basics:
1. Fund LSC sufficiently; $1B+ minimum
2. Create interoperable systems (between courts, LSOs, private bar, online navigators, etc) to make workflows more seamless

3. Create non-lawyer led initiatives to provide more resources to more people
4. Invest in clear, simple, non-jargony websites to help people navigate them better
5. Embrace regulatory reforms that pave the way for simpler processes

6. Encourage and embrace for-profit solutions
7. Align incentives across public and private sectors
8. Invest in scalable technology, not just one-off projects

/fin