Cartoon depicting how "no money down" bankruptcies are hurting filers

How “No Money Down” Bankruptcies Are Hurting Filers, and What We Can Do About It

The combination of rising debt and inability to pay for legal help has allowed the proliferation of a financially fraught practice: “no money down” bankruptcies. While purporting to help the low income client, these bankruptcies often leave the filer in a worse financial situation because they were ill-suited for Chapter 13 bankruptcy. This post explores the rise of “no money down” bankruptcies and how we can address this access to justice issue.

Cartoon depicting an owl teaching life skills to some repeat offenders of the animal world

Education and Community Support: Key to Avoiding Repeat Arrests?

A typical cycle for someone caught in the U.S. criminal justice system due to poverty-related issues may look something like this: Risky behavior on the individual’s part leading to arrest for a low-level crime such as shoplifting, followed by court-appointed community service. Repeat. An A2J Lab study aims to find out whether a community diversion program offers a better chance of breaking this cycle than community service programs.

Cartoon depicting pro se litigants struggling to understand the law

Do Pro Se Litigants Struggle to Interpret the Law?

Do pro se litigants struggle to interpret rules of civil procedure? Or could noncompliance be explained by other access to justice (A2J) barriers? Advocates for pro se litigants often focus on translating the law into plain language. But these efforts fall short of addressing deployability, an individual’s ability to leverage their knowledge of the law in court. Recent research suggests many A2J barriers fall into the latter category.

Cartoon depicting an official deciding who is a participant in the "Human Subjects Bowl"

Who is a ‘Human Subject’ in Legal Field Research?

Though it might seem like a purely academic regulatory puzzle, the way researchers, IRBs, and courts define “human subjects” in legal research will shape the future of evidence-based reform in access to justice and beyond.

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

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

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

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 

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

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

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.

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