{"id":2048,"date":"2019-09-20T12:08:11","date_gmt":"2019-09-20T16:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/?p=2048"},"modified":"2021-11-23T19:06:44","modified_gmt":"2021-11-23T19:06:44","slug":"center-launches-access-to-justice-clinic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/2019\/09\/20\/center-launches-access-to-justice-clinic\/","title":{"rendered":"Center launches Access to Justice Clinic"},"content":{"rendered":"

What\u2019s an important aspect of our legal system that law students typically don\u2019t <\/em>learn about? Here\u2019s one: the fact that vast numbers of Americans deal with their civil legal problems without help from lawyers. In landlord-tenant matters, in family court, in consumer and benefits cases, and in many other critical situations, Americans now mostly go it alone<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This reality contrasts sharply with the world of the law school casebook, in which no one, it seems, goes through a legal process without a knowledgeable attorney at their side. For many reasons — including high fees, the shortage of legal aid and pro bono <\/em>help, the increasing complexity of laws and procedures, and more \u2013 that’s just not how our system actually works these days.<\/p>\n

Enter the civil \u201caccess to justice\u201d movement, which seeks to ensure that America\u2019s justice systems work for everyone \u2013 not just those with high incomes. And enter the Sheller Center’s Access to Justice Clinic,<\/a> launched this fall. In this clinic, six students are engaging in hands-on projects addressing access-to-justice problems in Philly. One project concerns the difficulty that unrepresented Philadelphians have in getting even a simple divorce. Another involves the high number of default judgments in landlord-tenant court, which result in evictions without the court ever hearing the (typically unrepresented) tenant\u2019s side of the story.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s too early to say where the students\u2019 work will lead, but the Clinic is off to a good start. The new clinic is just our most recent attempt, by the way, to engage students in improving access to justice in Pennsylvania (see our work on fair treatment for non-native speakers of English<\/a> in court proceedings for another example). We hope you\u2019ll check back as the year progresses to learn more about our Access to Justice Clinic and other projects.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What\u2019s an important aspect of our legal system that law students typically don\u2019t learn about? Here\u2019s one: the fact that vast numbers of Americans deal with their civil legal problems without help from lawyers. In landlord-tenant matters, in family court, in consumer and benefits cases, and in many other critical situations, Americans now mostly go … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"generate_page_header":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[5],"class_list":["post-2048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-access-to-justice","category-news","tag-access-to-civil-justice"],"yoast_head":"\nCenter launches Access to Justice Clinic - Elder Justice Consortium<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/2019\/09\/20\/center-launches-access-to-justice-clinic\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Center launches Access to Justice Clinic - Elder Justice Consortium\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What\u2019s an important aspect of our legal system that law students typically don\u2019t learn about? 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