Are We at a Boiling Point?

Public trust and confidence in our legal system—in our courts, in our judges, and in our profession—is low. This is not an assumption, but rather it is based on studies and polling done by IAALS and others over the last several decades. But just knowing that it is low is not enough. We must ask ourselves: Why? Why is the public dissatisfied with our justice system? What are their concerns? To improve public trust and confidence, we must shed light on these answers.

Traditional surveys often just scratch the surface of this issue, and IAALS has set out to get more in-depth answers. Beginning with several focus groups in diverse cities nationwide, followed by dozens of one-on-one interviews with members of the public, our research team is finalizing our research on the critical areas that contribute to mistrust and developing recommendations for change, to be released in mid 2020.

As a part of that project, we solicited papers from thought leaders across the country, asking them to explore what low public confidence in the legal system means and how concerned Americans should be about its potential effects. The writers gave us three thoughtful, and often conflicting, answers.

None of these papers represent IAALS’ perspective. IAALS is apolitical, and its work is research rather than forming opinions. However, IAALS hopes these three papers will kick start a part of the conversation we call “Are We at a Boiling Point?”, which will play a role in the continued work IAALS does in the realm of public trust and confidence.