This report shares insights from a National Science Foundation-funded workshop on “Access to Justice Research and Federal Agencies” that convened over 50 researchers and federal agency staff, representing more than 30 agencies and academic institutions, to engage in structured discussions regarding opportunities to collaborate across eight critical areas of law and policy (housing, employment, health, education, consumer debt/finance, the nexus of civil and criminal justice, public benefits, and global issues in access to justice). In-depth discussions focused on increasing access to civil justice through evidence-based policymaking and using federal government data in access to justice research.
Access to justice crosses disciplines and often occurs outside of courts and without the assistance of lawyers; these critical facts were repeated touchpoints in conversations at the workshop. Participants identified opportunities for research and data to support more effective, evidence-based access to justice solutions, including better targeting interventions, reducing common barriers, identifying alternative forms of assistance, increasing understanding of people’s experience of legal problems, and aligning agencies’ missions with action. They also identified data challenges, including privacy, institutional design, and balancing accuracy with access. Participants also identified opportunities around government data sharing, including the need to increase collaboration across agencies and between agencies and academic researchers, streamline data sharing through more robust data linkages, improve data matching and shared meaning, enhance accountability and oversight, expand data storytelling, and more.