WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) chaired a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing today on ways to make the civil justice system more accessible to every American.
The hearing, entitled “Closing the Justice Gap: How to Make the Civil Justice System Accessible to All Americans,” highlighted how millions of low-income Americans struggle to receive proper legal help for civil legal problems such as obtaining restraining orders against domestic abusers, tenant’s rights issues stemming from conflicts with landlords, and veterans’ struggles to obtain the benefits their service entitles them to receive. This creates a “justice gap” between those who are unable to secure the representation they need to secure their legal rights and their wealthier counterparts who can afford access to counsel.
Participants emphasized the need for additional funding for civil legal aid agencies and discussed innovative solutions for providing more low-income Americans with access to legal services. Veronica Gonzalez, a former client of Legal Aid Chicago who now sits on the Legal Aid Chicago board of directors, delivered powerful testimony as a domestic abuse survivor, sharing details on how multiple legal aid organizations provided her with the assistance she needed to secure an order of protection and custody of her child.
Additional featured witnesses at today’s hearing included Ronald S. Flagg, president of Legal Services Corporation; Nathan L. Hecht, chief justice of the Supreme Court of Texas; and Nikole Nelson, CEO of Frontline Justice.
As a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Coons is committed to helping every American, regardless of income, access legal advice and services. As part of this effort, Senator Coons introduced the bipartisan Driving for Opportunity Act with Senator Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) last year, which would provide incentives to states that choose to end debt-based driver’s license suspensions.
A video and transcript of Senator Coons’ opening remarks are available below.
WATCH HERE:
Senator Coons: Today, the Senate Judiciary Committee will examine the gap that exists between the civil needs of low-income Americans and the services available to help meet those needs. Chair [Dick] Durbin [D-Ill.] asked me to preside at today’s hearing, and I’m grateful for the honor of doing so. On Chair Durbin’s behalf, I also want to thank Ranking Member [Lindsey] Graham [R-S.C.] and his staff for working on a bipartisan basis to put together today’s consensus witness panel, and I look forward to some opening remarks by Senator [Thom] Tillis [R-N.C.], Senator [Richard] Blumenthal [D-Conn.], and we will be joined, I understand, by Chair Durbin later in this hearing.
It has been more than 15 years since the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the civil justice gap. The reality that we really have two justice systems in this country – one for those who have the resources to hire counsel, and one for those who don’t – has only become more stark in those 15 years. Three-quarters – three-quarters – of low-income American households experienced at least one civil legal problem per year. Only a fraction seek legal help and get it because of the high cost of legal services. That means that vast swaths of legal issues low-income Americans face, month in and month out, go unaddressed. Landlord-tenant, debt collection, public benefits, domestic violence, consumer rights; the list is long. To be clear, these aren’t meritless cases; when you give these folks lawyers, when they are able to secure representation, they’re nearly seven times more likely to win their cases than when they’re unrepresented. To make matters worse, Congress, for decades, has failed to adequately fund the Legal Services Corporation [LSC], the largest single funder of civil legal aid in the United States. As we mark LSC’s 50th anniversary this year, Congress is funding the organization at about half the inflation-adjusted dollars it appropriated in the 1980s.
There’s been progress in my home state of Delaware – you knew I was going to have to focus something positive on Delaware. Our three largest civil legal aid organizations have partnered to raise funds and provide legal services to the Delawareans who most need them. In 2023, our state took a major step: Our legislature passed a law that guaranteed a right to representation to low-income Delawareans in landlord-tenant matters and appropriated new funds to make that right a reality. Legal Services Corporation of Delaware and Delaware Community Legal Aid have been able to staff up, hiring new lawyers to take on these cases, and they’ve helped more low-income Delawareans stay in their homes and to settle or resolve landlord-tenant disputes promptly. That’s better for the clients, for the families, their communities – I would argue for landlords – and for our whole state. Delaware did something else I want to highlight: with signoff from our Supreme Court, the state created a qualified tenant advocate program to help handle the influx of cases. These advocates are not members of the Delaware bar. They undergo a rigorous training program to handle the basics of landlord-tenant cases and often come from the communities they serve. As someone who did identical work as a law student, I understand how it is possible for folks who are not members of the bar to be very effective and engaged advocates in such cases. That program in Delaware has been a big success, and it shows that with some out-of-the-box thinking, states and legal aid agencies can help more people with more issues even when attorneys are in short supply.
Finally, I want to highlight how the issues of this hearing relate to another problem I’m concerned about addressing, and for which we have bipartisan legislation: the practice in many states to suspend driver’s licenses for folks when they are too poor to pay court-related fines or fees. Not only do we not adequately help people meet their civil legal needs, we then further keep them down by taking away their ability to get to work and earn the money needed to pay off fines and meet those needs for their families. This creates a vicious downward cycle. I’m proud to lead the Driving for Opportunity Act with Republican Senator Roger Wicker that encourages states to stop this counterproductive practice. It has many bipartisan co-sponsors, including Senators Blumenthal and Tillis, Durbin, [Chuck] Grassley [R-Iowa] … and [Cory] Booker [D-N.J.]. Law enforcement organizations endorse it because they don’t want police officers acting as collections agents. Civil rights advocates endorse it because they want to see us stop these so-called “debt traps.” I’m proud Delaware’s also recently passed model legislation to address this and other issues in the fines and fees space. In short, both of these examples give me hope we can come together to address the issues we will hear about today from our talented panel.