People-Centered Legal Regulation: Grassroots Engagement with the Public

Innovations aimed at unlocking legal regulation and increasing access to justice are redefining how people can get the legal help they need. States across the country are making substantial headway to close the cracks in the system by allowing more people and providers to offer affordable, high-quality legal help to the public. Still, these regulatory reform innovations are missing a critical piece of the puzzle: public engagement.

States at the forefront of these efforts understand that, to be successful, they must listen to their people and understand the issues they are facing and what needs are going unmet. Despite states’ enthusiasm about creating avenues for public participation, states are hampered by difficulties engaging with everyday people on these complex and nuanced legal regulatory issues that often lay beyond their expertise.

Our work on the People-Centered Legal Regulation project is addressing these challenges and developing strategies and tools that states need to facilitate meaningful public participation in these vital efforts.

• Develop an empirically driven understanding of current public perspectives on the legal regulatory reform efforts underway across the country.
• Create a data-informed toolkit containing resources and strategies for effective public education and grassroots engagement in these efforts.
• Provide a roadmap and recommendations for states to facilitate meaningful public participation in the development of reforms that increase access to justice.

Regulatory reform is an essential component of improving access to justice. The long-standing regime of protectionist restrictions on who can provide legal help to people, and how they can provide it, has contributed to the current reality in which most people don’t seek legal help when they experience legal issues—and in which the legal infrastructure is shouldering the weight of helping people who don’t have lawyers to navigate a system designed for lawyers.

Recognizing these needs and the urgency of addressing them, states across the country are taking bold steps in reassessing and rewriting the rules to allow new kinds of legal service providers—like allied legal professionals and community justice workers—and new models for legal service provision—like novel uses of technology and allowing people who aren't lawyers to invest in businesses that provide legal services.

We must continue to meet people where they are and put legal services within their reach. But we can do that only if we engage directly with consumers to understand their diverse needs, experiences, viewpoints, and difficulties, and make those factors a fundamental part of the solutions. Meaningful public education and engagement is therefore crucial for developing effective and sustainable reforms and, ultimately, for enhancing the accessibility, fairness, and reliability of our legal system at large.

This project will help states give voice to people in need, make it easier for them to understand the process for reform and their role in it, and empower them to participate in nationwide efforts to increase their access to justice.

Our work is only possible through purposeful listening and collaboration with people across the country. Everyone, from legal system stakeholders to members of the public, plays a critical role in our innovations. Together, we jumpstart the groundbreaking and achievable solutions that will clear a path to justice for everyone.