Claudia Johnson Suggests Incentive Awards ATJ Innovation

Posted on May 26, 2016 
By Claudia Johnson, LawHelp Interactive Program Manager, Pro Bono Net

Let’s create a Competition to solve the Access to Justice Problem!

At the recent SRLN, the keynote speaker, Judge Burke from Minneapolis, gave took us back to basics and went back to the core principles of due process and public perception of fairness and legitimacy and the need to focus again on reducing the intimidation factor of courts.

That same day, Richard shared his video on ideas on how to create incentives to achieve access to Justice. He has posted his video here: https://accesstojustice.net/2016/05/12/my-video-on-five-ways-to-incentivize-bar-courts-legal-tech-and-nonprofits-to-get-us-to-access-for-all/ I highly recommend those interested in ATJ policy to watch the video—because it is one of the rare instances where policy analysis tools from micro and macroeconomics are being applied to the provision of legal services to the poor. And it the ideas he proposes are thought provoking and hopefully will generate a dialog.

Some of the ideas Richard discusses include using techniques that come from well-known micro economics and taxation strategies, to create economic incentives that help aligning the behavior of attorneys, bar associations, legal aid groups, and courts in such a way that they improve access to Justice. The premise is that practicing law is a privilege and that the receipt of privilege requires something in return that promotes the public good. In a nutshell, these were the points he made:

Read the Article on Richard Zorza's Access to Justice Blog