Don't go it alone

Civil legal challenges cut across an astonishing range of headline-making social issues. And so, while it is possible to make a compelling case for “access to justice” without tying it to issues of inequality, mobility, race, and equity, that is no way to build or ally with a movement. Access to justice should not just be about “justice” in a narrow legalistic sense, but in the way that the broader world understands it and people feel it, driven by imperatives such as: expanding opportunities for underserved populations; creating legal systems that protect the most vulnerable; and building institutions and structures that are fair and work for everyone regardless of race, class, or gender. Indeed, some of the field’s most promising innovations emerge from a “justice” framework that explicitly connects civil legal aid to other sectors and movements, and to other barriers faced by low-income Americans rather than trying to go it alone.1 An astonishing number of people face civil legal issues. Roughly 70 percent of low-income households have experienced at least one civil legal problem in the past year which run the gamut from housing instability, to wage theft, to personal bankruptcy, to child support.2 Legal aid cuts across those challenges and connects family, livelihood, and health challenges with the legal system. Thinking about access to justice as a cross-cutting imperative clarifies more than it complicates because it is a better reflection of reality: people live their lives horizontally, rather than in employment, housing, or health