Student Voices

Cartoon depicting an individual listening to music but bound to a ball and chain marked by a contract

Do Consumers Fare Better in Court or Mandated Arbitration? 

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Conflicting research exists to address whether consumers who “agree” to mandatory arbitration clauses have worse outcomes compared to consumers who are free to litigate in courts. Courts typically assume that by entering a contract mandating arbitration, each party freely bargained for that clause. While there are concerns about how knowingly consumers agree to arbitration clauses, HLS J.D. candidate Rachel Barkin writes about consumer outcomes, based on the dispute resolution process, and potential areas for future research.

Cartoon depicting the clear path to a life without parole sentence, in comparison to the procedural safeguards to a death sentence

Life Without Parole: A Call for Legal Reform

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Life without the possibility of parole (LWOP) is often considered a better alternative to capital punishment. But death sentences carry certain safeguards to minimize error rates including counsel at all stages of the criminal process, federal scrutiny of sentences, appeals at the state level, pro bono firm support, and media attention. And yet, about 40 percent of death sentences in a 22-year time frame were overturned. Without those same safeguards, LWOP would likely have at least similar error rates—if only we knew. HLS student Kristen Arnold argues for evidence-based research to determine whether the absence of counsel and appeals reveal errors worth reforming procedural protections for those sentenced to life without parole.

Cartoon depicting a child welfare agent entering a home, without a judge's order, in the name of children's safety

Family Miranda: Expanding Due Process Rights to Child Welfare Investigations

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Texas’s 2023 “Family Miranda” law requires child welfare investigators to inform parents of their due process rights at the beginning of an investigation. The intent is to reduce unnecessary state intervention, trauma, and coercion. The law passed with bipartisan support and ultimately clarifies existing law, rather than creates new law. In this “Student Voices” blog, HLS student Julia Saltzman calls for a randomized controlled trial to determine the efficacy of the law in improving fairness and reducing unnecessary interventions.

Does Pretrial Detention Prevent Failure to Appear and New Criminal Activity?

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The U.S. has embraced a ‘tough on crime’ narrative since the 1980s, and it’s reflected in the tripling of the nation’s jail population since that time. Most of the increase in jail population growth, however, is due to those detained pretrial. The courts explain this as a necessity to deterring failure to appear and new criminal activity by the individual. The data offers a different argument.

Cartoon depicting cycle of pretrial detention and the social and economic costs on communities

The Cost of Waiting: Economic and Social Impacts of Pretrial Detention

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In 1987, the Supreme Court held that pretrial detention did not violate due process and is therefore constitutional. However, pretrial detention continues to raise humanitarian and justice concerns while also imposing serious and quantifiable costs on detained individuals, which, in turn, imposes economic and social costs on communities.

Cartoon depicting an individual looking for specialized mental health court support but finding it closed to civil defendants

The Case for a Specialized Civil Mental Health Court

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While specialized “problem-solving” courts have become common, there is still no equivalent civil mental health court in Massachusetts to handle complex issues like civil commitment and involuntary psychiatric treatment. The gap exposes the potential for the Commonwealth to learn from other states leading reform of the civil judicial system in this area and to pilot such a court and evaluate its impact through a randomized controlled trial.

Cartoon depicting legal delays for involuntarily committed psychiatric patients with schizophrenia seeking treatment in Massachusetts

Involuntarily Committed Patients Face Legal Obstacles, Treatment Delays

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In Massachusetts, involuntarily committed psychiatric patients with schizophrenia often face systemic barriers to timely treatment from procedural inefficiencies that prioritize legal formalities over patient well-being.  To address this access to justice challenge, the Commonwealth could implement reforms to streamline the legal process while preserving patient rights.

Cartoon depicting website navigation as searching for a needle in a haystack

Government Websites: Why are They so Bad (and Can They be Better)?

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Government websites, when effective, can make the process of filing for bankruptcy, divorce, restraining orders and other common legal requests easier. Unfortunately, the quality of these websites varies significantly with many state and federal sites’ lack of accessibility reflecting limited access to justice for their users. Fixing these websites is a relatively easy and inexpensive method to expand accessibility to court systems and services, provided the willpower is there. 

Cartoon depicting the confusion and difficulties of filing for no-money-down bankruptcy

What To Do About “No Money Down” Bankruptcies

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In the second part of the “Student Voices” series on “no money down” bankruptcies, HLS student Joe Liberman picks up where he left off in the previous blog: exploring possible solutions to the problems of Chapter 13 filings, understanding their tradeoffs, and proposing how we might study them. 

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