The Justice Gap: Meeting the Legal Needs of Low- and Middle-Income America

 "86% of the civil legal problems reported by low-income Americans in the past year received inadequate or no legal help."   -- Legal Services Corporation,  June 2017 report)))) 

Join the RMHUC on Wednesday, January 17 for a special panel presentation discussing access to justice issues in America and Colorado.  Our panel will explore the challenges facing low- and middle-income Americans who generally cannot afford to hire lawyers to meet their legal needs in healthcare, housing, government benefits, child custody, domestic violence, and a variety of other issues.   Legal aid programs often provide assistance in these areas, but cannot satisfy the staggering need for help, leading to a "justice gap."

National and local organizations have struggled for years to bridge this gap.  At Harvard, the Access to Justice Lab at the Harvard Law School's Center for the Legal Profession, led by Faculty Director Jim Greiner, is conducting research on who gets legal assistance and how much of a difference it makes.  In Colorado, the state supreme court, state bar association, and statewide legal services group joined forces in 2003 to create the Colorado Access to Justice Commission (ATJC), which develops, coordinates, and implements policy initiatives to "expand access to and enhance the quality of justice in civil legal matters."  Local access to justice committees, other statewide organizations, and even the courts are working on similar efforts.  Our panel will discuss these various efforts, what's working and what's not, and how we can strive to meet the civil legal needs of all Americans.

Our esteemed panelists include:

• Professor Jim Greiner (AM '04, PHD '07), Faculty Director of Harvard's Access to Justice Lab and Professor of Law at Harvard Law School

• Judge Daniel M. Taubman (JD '74), Judge on the Colorado Court of Appeals and member of Colorado's Access to Justice Commission

• Jon Asher (AB '68, JD '71), Executive Director of Colorado Legal Services and member of Colorado's Access to Justice Commission

• Moderator, Melissa Hart (AB '91, JD '95), newly-appointed Justice of the Colorado Supreme Court, former University of Colorado Law School professor, and member of Colorado's Access to Justice Commission

This event will be held at the University of Colorado in Denver School of Public Affairs building at 1380 Lawrence Street, in the Terrace Room; we thank UC Denver for hosting us.  Our panel discussion will be held from 6:00-7:30 pm, followed by a reception with food and beverages.

The price for this event is $30.  CLE credit in ethics has been applied for.

  Click here to buy tickets!!!