About 100 lawyers and law students joined panels of national and state experts at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law on Friday to discuss improving access to justice in Ohio. Ohio Legal Assistance Foundation Executive Director Angela M. Lloyd served as conference advisor.
Supreme Court of Ohio Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor, in opening remarks, described work underway in Ohio on creation of an access to justice commission, which brings together experts to develop ways to make the civil justice system more accessible for low income and disadvantaged populations.
“The access to justice movement is exciting,”she said. “It is our opportunity to seek out the best and the brightest, and then pull in resources and make it our own. Increasing access to justice should be an ever present goal in any state’s judicial system.”
Conference participants heard presentations by Justice Nathan L. Hecht of the Texas Supreme Court, who serves on the Texas Access to Justice Commission; Meredith McBurney, a consultant to the American Bar Association on access to justice commissions; and Peter Edelman, Georgetown University professor and chair of the District of Columbia Access to Justice Commission. More than half of the states now have access to justice commissions.
A separate panel of experts, including state representative Kathleen Clyde (D-Kent), reported on civil legal aid and representation of indigent defendants in criminal cases in Ohio.
O’Connor stated that in addition to making courts more accessible to parties who may not be able to afford a lawyer or have difficulties understanding English, there is also a basic need to simply keep the doors open and the lights on.
“Closed doors and limited hours are hugely symbolic,” she said. “It says we don’t value the service the courts provide.”
“Courts are absolutely essential in a free society,” O’Connor concluded.