A2J Lab

Cartoon depicting a lawyer shown as a wolf evicting the Statue of Liberty and replacing her with Uncle Sam

Who Deserves a Lawyer? The Hidden Gender Bias in the Right to Counsel

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The landmark court decision in Gideon v. Wainwright from 1963 made it a constitutional right, both in federal and state courts, for criminal defendants to have the right to counsel. That decision does not extend to civil cases– such as child custody, eviction, and domestic violences cases–which affect women, often from marginalized backgrounds, more than than men. HLS student Laura Aquino argues for a study to address the gender bias in denying legal assistance to civil litigants that may play a role in preserving a system that limits access to justice for women.

Cartoon depicting three little pics trying to avoid eviction from the wolf

Legal Literacy: An Upstream Eviction Prevention Strategy

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With this housing insecurity having potentially numerous contributing factors, the Access to Justice Lab and research partners at the University of Houston Law Center targeted legal literacy as a potential key to addressing housing evictions in its recently completed pilot study.

Cartoon depicting a lawyer seeing medical quackery in his mirror reflection

What Law Can Learn from the History of Medicine

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Law is a millennium behind medicine (give or take a few centuries). While medicine has evolved into a science-based discipline with rigorous empirical standards, law still operates on precedent, rhetoric, and theory untethered to scientific evidence. It doesn’t have to be that way. There is nothing so unique about the practice of law that makes it immune to data. Why should law, unlike every other discipline, not submit itself to math and science?

Cartoon depicting different sports players participating in a Human Subjects Bowl

The Ethics of RCTs in Law: Navigating IRBs in Human Subjects Research 

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Using humans in legal research requires ethical oversight, much like scientific research, but with some distinctions. IRB expert Shannon Sewards shares those nuanced differences and offers insight into some of the challenges in determining activities requiring IRB oversight, balancing ethics with regulatory requirements, and operating with reduced support from the federal government. 

Cartoon about courthouse cellphone bans

Courthouse Cell Phone Bans Limit Access to Justice

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Across the country, courthouse cell phone bans pose a significant barrier to entry to the legal system. HLS J.D. candidate Andrew Reed argues that in attempting to maintain a respectful atmosphere and protect privacy with cellphone bans, courthouses have inadvertently made access to justice less attainable for many, including pro se litigants.

Cartoon depicting Common Rule protections for research participants

The Ethics of RCTs in the Law: Demystifying IRBs and the Common Rule

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When researchers in the United States conduct human subjects research, they must submit to the watchful eye of Institutional Review Boards. To many researchers, especially those outside of fields typically engaged in human subjects research, IRBs are mysterious, bureaucratic entities. Here, we delve into demystifying IRBs and the Common Rule.

Cartoon of effect of Zoom court on failure to appear rates

Student Voices: What Effect Does Zoom Court Have on Failure to Appear Rates?

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The COVID-19 pandemic thrust online court into a mainstream alternative to traditional in-person court hearings. Zoom has shown mixed results, both in its ability to capture the needs of a court hearing (including sticky notes passed between attorneys and clients) and its role in reducing failure to appear rates in court. This makes online court a prime candidate for a randomized control trial to test its impact on court appearances.

Cartoon depicting mice with instructions on getting through a maze

Outside Research: Simple Solutions to Courts’ Failure-to-Appear Rates

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Can we do anything about failure to appear in criminal cases? According to Alissa Fishbane, we can, and for once, what we can do is cheap and easy. Her research has shown that low-cost interventions such as redesigning summons and traffic tickets have been highly effective at reducing missed dates, resulting in fewer penalties for defendants, more efficient adjudication, and savings for the justice system as a whole.

Cartoon depicting legal information programs' role in supporting unrepresented noncitizens navigating the U.S. immigration system

Student Voices — Legal Information Programs: A Possible Way to Reduce Harm for Unrepresented Noncitizens in Immigration Proceedings

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Legal information programs aim to support pro se noncitizens navigating the high stakes and extreme inequities of the U.S. system. Given that 63% of all noncitizens and 83% of detained noncitizens proceed without counsel, these programs could act as necessary stopgaps. It is worth delving deeper into the nature of these programs and the evidence that these programs promote access to justice for unrepresented noncitizens navigating the complexities of our immigration system.

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