Presidents Committee on Access to Justice

The President’s Committee on Access to Justice is charged to consider and implement methods for enhancing access by the indigent to the civil legal system. Among other things, this Committee shall encourage lawyers to provide more legal services to the poor, pro bono publico, and shall work to obtain adequate funding for programs designed to assure that the poor have access to civil justice, as outlined in the State Bar Plan, adopted October 26, 1989 by the NYSBA House of Delegates. The Committee shall accomplish these objectives through all necessary and appropriate means, including cooperation with local bar associations and other public and private associations and agencies.

The New York State Bar Association’s President’s Committee on Access to Justice and Committee on Legal Aid invite all legal services and pro bono providers, as well as other providers of free legal representation to low-income community members (e.g. public defenders, assigned counsel panel members, attorneys for the child, etc.) in the State of New York to participate in virtual public hearings regarding access to Justice in the post-COVID legal landscape.

We are requesting testimony from public interest legal services organizations, law firms, solo- practitioners and other providers of legal services to New York’s low-income communities.

Areas of focus will include developments since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic regarding access to justice in relation to family court, immigration proceedings, housing court/landlord-tenant proceedings, criminal justice, social security proceedings, state benefit proceedings, the efficacy and equitability of remote proceedings, and the factor that race plays throughout these considerations.

We are particularly interested in testimony regarding the interrelationship and impact of high-volume courts’ hybrid virtual/in person court proceedings and operations, and the effect of the digital divide on low-income community members, court users and providers of free legal assistance to these communities.

The Virtual Public hearings were held via Zoom on Tuesday, November 16, 2021, from 1:00pm – 4:00pm and Thursday, November 18, 2021, from 9:00am – 12:00pm.

Please see the video’s below:

Please submit written testimony by November 24, 2021 to Elizabeth Jois at Brown@nylag.org

Sally F. Curran, Esq., Co-Chair Committee on Legal Aid
Adriene L. Holder, Esq., Co-Chair Committee on Legal Aid
Tiffany Danielle Liston, Esq., Co-Chair President’s Committee on Access to Justice
Edwina Frances Martin, Esq., Former Co-Chair President’s Committee on Access to Justice
Sherry Levin Wallach, Esq., New York State Bar Association President-Elect, and Co-Chair President’s Committee on Access to Justice