Ordinarily, legal issues are wrapped up with some socioeconomic problem: evictions concern housing insecurity, criminal justice involvement occurs with mental health issues, debt collection indicates lack of financial wellbeing, or SNAP benefits implicate food insecurity. The A2J Lab investigates whether resolution of legal issues improves indicators of socioeconomic wellbeing, and vice versa.
Current Projects
Mother Up
The Setting:
What We’ll Learn:
Research Team:
Access to Justice Lab
Mothers Outreach Network
Non-Lawyer Support in SNAP Benefits Cases
The Setting: There will never be enough resources to provide full representation to all Alaskans who could use it in civil cases. The question is: Are there other alternatives that could help the residents of Alaska get the support they deserve? Could trained advocates or other non-lawyer supports be part of the solution? This RCT is studying how effective trained advocates are at increasing success in SNAP benefits cases.
The Access to Justice Lab has partnered with Alaska Legal Services Corporation to design a randomized control trial to evaluate community advocates services in the context of the SNAP benefits arm of their program.
What We’ll Learn:
Research Team:
Access to Justice Lab
Alaska Legal Services
Legal Services Funded Corp.