Measuring Access to Justice

Every person seeking justice deserves a chance to be heard. Extraordinary efforts by courts, legal aid services, legislators and activists make that possible. The Justice Index presents, for the first time, clear and detailed pictures of the scope of the work being done and where more is needed.

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Findings

The Justice Index presents data in the following categories which reflect key elements of access to justice in statewide justice systems:
Disability Assistance 16% of states allow judges to charge a deaf or hearing impaired person for the cost of a sign language interpreter. See The Data >
Components
Language Assistance 22% of states don’t yet assure quality by using interpreters who are “certified”. See The Data >
Self Representation 47% of states don’t yet guide judges to assist people without counsel See The Data >
Attorney Access 1:40 ratio of attorneys for people in poverty to attorneys for everyone. See The Data >
Justice Index Composite 50 We evaluated each U.S. state on four key issues to create a comparative measure for overall accessibility of justice. See The Data >

Methodology

The Justice Index is based on a research strategy developed at the NCAJ, and refined via consultation with a number of national experts on access to justice. Data points and other means of evaluation have been weighted in proportion to their importance in ensuring access to justice.

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How You Can Help the Index Grow

The Justice Index is intended to be part of a conversation and we welcome your feedback on the results of our research, our choice of criteria and the weights we applied to each answer. The findings in The Justice Index result from independent research conducted by our staff and volunteers, and also reflect our correspondence with officials and other contacts in many states. We encourage and welcome your comments, at justiceindex@ncforaj.org, to help us make the next edition of The Justice Index a still more powerful tool.

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