Access to justice: Connecting you with legal resources
What is access to justice and what does it mean for you? Access to justice as a concept will mean something different to every person, but an agreed upon definition is that it provides access to legal materials, legal information, legal assistance and fair treatment in court for everyone. Access to justice focuses especially on communities and individuals that have obstacles to access, such as location, broadband capabilities and other obstacles. Organizations like the Department of Justice have dedicated offices to address the access to justice[1], but law libraries also play a crucial role in providing access. An American Bar Association publication cites[2] that the US has more than 1.3 million lawyers, there are regions that have few or no lawyers. In the country’s 3,100 counties, 54 have not a single lawyer, and another 182 have just one or two lawyers.
Access to justice has also been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, with Legal Services Corporation[3] sharing that grantees reported a surge in eviction cases. People facing evictions used to be able to come into the public law library and find resources to assist them, but since March 2020 public law libraries in California, including Riverside County Law Library, have been closed or offering limited services. Adding to the challenges listed above, the pandemic has impacted legal aid organizations and libraries who are now facing issues with funding, transitioning to remote working and virtual services.
Proactive ways RCLL is mitigating these Obstacles
Staff is deconstructing how we normally provide services to find gaps and issues after we transitioned to online, phone and email services in March 2020. Examples of this deconstruction is attending a webinar on ADA compliance . Some areas we to address were signage and a non-verbal help menu. We are researching how to offer free virtual legal aid through our Lawyers in the Library program while addressing the digital divide and technology barrier for our community. We have over 42,000 titles in our three locations, but patrons are unable to access most of these titles while we are closed to the public. One way we made progress in meeting the challenge of print access is that we added the Lexis Digital Library to our collection, which is an ebook version of every Lexis title we subscribe to. We worked with legal database vendors to offer remote access and as of March 2021 continue to offer remote access to Westlaw, Lexis, HeinOnline, EbscoHost and Wolters Kluwer Cheetah. We moved to virtual programming, from MCLEs to a National Law Day event with the League of Women Voters to a resource fair.
Looking out into our community, we are seeking partnerships with local legal aid organizations to build upon the monthly free low-income taxpayer clinic offered with Inland Counties Legal Services (ICLS). On March 25 we are partnering with ICLS and OneJustice for a free program on resources for small businesses. Staff also shares a tech tip on Tuesdays on our social media platforms, highlighting resources that RCLL has as well as other organizations in the community and nationwide.
Looking ahead, through the Book to Action grant, funded by the California Center for the Book, we will be providing a free copy of Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson starting April 1. We are developing programming and a Teen tiktok challenge on the book’s themes of criminal justice reform, prison reform and racial justice. These programs are planned to take place April 26-April 30 culminating in a virtual National Law Day event on May 1 at 1pm. More information is on our website.
We continually look for ways to improve our services, enhance our collection, offer innovative programs, and do our part in providing access to justice. We will be successful only with your help. We welcome your suggestions. – please email us at lawlibrary.riverside@rclawlibrary.org
[1] https://www.justice.gov/archives/atj
[1] https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/administrative/news/2020/07/potlp2020.pdf
Written by: Jenna Pontious, Public Services Librarian
