Accessing Justice in Contemporary America: The Community Needs and Services Study

American Bar Foundation, Chicago IL

Investigators

Abstract

The Community Needs and Services Study is a community-sited, multi-method study investigating the American public's experiences with problems that fall within the purview of the civil justice system. The study focuses on a core set of commonly experienced problems surrounding issues such as personal finances, housing and family relationships. These problems are carefully selected to be those that have civil legal aspects, raise civil legal issues, and have consequences shaped by civil law. The study has three components: (1) The Public Survey, an in-person survey of a representative sample of adult residents of the study city inquiring about the incidence of the selected problems, responses to such problems, and how such problems affect the people who experience them; (2) The Provider Survey, a survey of both legal and non-legal organizations and programs that may provide people with information or advice about, or services for, civil justice problems; (3) The In-depth Interview Study, a series of in-depth follow-up interviews with a subsample of respondents to the Public Survey. The study considers the wide range of ways that people respond to their justice problems, the variety of resources they may draw upon, and the broader impacts of law on people's lives.