Millions of families & small businesses have justice problems every year, but most people go without help. Low-income people are particularly affected, but middle-class families and small businesses are also locked out of the civil justice system.

Often, people don’t even identify these problems—a credit card debt, a dispute with a landlord—as legal, or think there is anything that can be done about them. Or they think (often correctly) that they can’t afford a lawyer. Sometimes, these problems end up in court, where people are often on their own. In 3 out of 4 cases in state courts, at least one side is without legal representation.

The Rhode Center’s work seeks to help us better understand the causes and effects of this access crisis and identify possible policy solutions to drive impactful change. We produced the first empirical assessment of reforms to the regulation of legal practices implemented in Arizona and Utah and created the Legal Innovation Toolkit to help guide states considering regulatory reform. And in early 2024, we will be sponsoring a major conference with the RAND Corporation focused on bringing leading California policy makers together to engage in these critical conversations on regulation and access to legal help.