Conference on Access to Justice in California

Note: Text in Chapter 7 was updated in October 2024 to reflect corrections to the keynote speech presented at the conference.

Millions of Americans experience civil legal problems daily, and low-income Americans are particularly prone to experience such problems. At a day-long conference titled Access to Justice in California: Challenges and Policy Innovations held in Santa Monica, California, approximately 75 national and California leaders discussed approaches for reforming legal services regulation as a way to reduce the access to justice gap in California. The conference was structured to walk attendees through the different, but related, avenues of legal services regulation reform that have emerged across the United States.

These conference proceedings summarize key themes from five panel discussions and provide select and specific examples to deepen the understanding of the issues discussed. Throughout the panel discussions, there was broad consensus among participants that the access to justice gap in the United States is real, wide, and deep. Rethinking legal services regulation is one approach in addressing this gap, alongside increased funding for direct legal services and the simplification, standardization, and modernization of court process and procedure. Part of the discussions focused on the multiple roles nonlawyers have played, and do play, in the provision of legal services. There was the beginning of a consensus that the community justice worker model may hold potential in California, although more conversations with existing stakeholders will have to occur before a proposal could move forward. Participants also considered how First Amendment challenges to the ban on the unauthorized practice of law could potentially affect nonlawyer practice.