Consulting Services

Strategic guidance for a more accessible legal system

Access to Justice Strategies

Those who find themselves involved in our legal system should be able to meaningfully participate—without having to incur unnecessarily high expenses for lawyers or other legal services. They should be able to understand what steps to follow, have realistic expectations, and know how to ask for relief from the court. Unfortunately, it is often the case that our courts and legal services providers are inaccessible to most. Complicated processes created by and for lawyers, complex forms, legal language, and myriad other barriers effectively leave out many from accessing our legal system.

We Can Help You

Evaluate What’s Working—and What’s Not

We conduct thorough assessments of your policies, procedures, and operations to identify strengths and areas for improvement across all service points.

Implement Smart, Sustainable Solutions

From new tools to targeted trainings, we help you develop strategies that deliver lasting impact and support your public service mission.

Get Clear, Actionable Recommendations

Receive specific, realistic suggestions to improve access,and enhance user experience at every level.

Leverage Existing Resources

We'll identify tools and practices your team already has—or can easily adapt—to create meaningful improvements.

Identify Barriers to Access

We help identify obstacles your clients and users experience accessing your services and programs. We then provide strategies for removing these barriers in order to improve access to justice.

Language Access Planning

Every court system in the country is facing increasing numbers of limited-English speakers needing to avail themselves of court programs and services. Courts have to find ways to ensure that their most vulnerable populations, including limited-English speakers, are able to access their services.

Courts must provide comprehensive, meaningful, and high quality language access services, including the use of bilingual staff, translated information (written, video, and audio), and court interpreters, as well as the responsible use of machine translation tools. To provide these services, courts must establish clear policies and implement systemic efficiencies, effective and innovative practices, and develop new strategies to successfully serve an increasingly diverse population. Making the courts more accessible to all court users benefits not just a particular court’s constituents, but the court system as a whole by enhancing trust and confidence in a responsive judiciary.

LWR has extensive experience working with courts throughout the country to address:

Development of comprehensive language access plans and policies
Provision of quality language access services at all points of contact between an individual and the court system
Strategies for working effectively with various professionals providing language access services
Training of judicial officers and court staff on language access policies and practical implementation
Collaborations between courts and communities to improve responsiveness and effectiveness of outreach and services
Language access planning accountability mechanisms
Practical tools to enable courts to provide meaningful access in the most cost-effective and efficient manner
The responsible and appropriate use of technology for providing language access, including machine translation