The Access to Justice Gap
Affects Everyone By Theresa Hurley
When many people hear the phrase ‘access to justice’ they often envision legal services for the low-income. In Contra Costa County, thoughts of nonprofits such as Bay Area Legal Aid, the Family Justice Center and Contra Costa Senior Legal Services may come to mind. And while the services that these and many other legal aid organizations provide are vitally important for the people who qualify for those services, there is another, even larger group of people who do not have adequate access to justice, those in the middle class or with ‘moderate means’. Many of these people own their homes and/or have a middle-class income and therefore do not qualify for assistance from many legal service organizations and other community nonprofits. Yet they are not able to afford the legal assistance they require, even seemingly very basic legal services. Dealing with legal issues is just as important and critical to their lives as it is for low-income folks. In 2019, the State Bar of California conducted a survey where thousands of Californians of all income levels were surveyed about their civil legal needs. The resulting California Justice Gap Survey1, found that 55 percent of Californians experienced at least one civil legal issue
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in their household over the past year and 13 percent experienced six or more. There are two different types of justice gaps – one is a knowledge gap, where people of all income levels do not even understand that their problem has a legal remedy. The other is a service gap where consumers cannot afford the cost of the legal assistance they require. The survey found that this service gap persists even with those whose incomes are 601 percent above the federal poverty line (income of $154,501 and over) where 78 percent of people in that category received no or inadequate legal help. As there is no right to counsel in civil cases like there is for criminal matters, many people of all income levels are left to handle important legal issues without assistance or even basic legal information. In cases involving divorce or child custody, housing and employment (all legal areas severely impacted by Covid restrictions) most litigants have to handle their legal issue on their own. According to the California Justice Gap Survey, as many as 90 percent of those facing eviction do not have legal assistance and in 70 percent of family law cases one or both parties are unrepresented.2 We all know how expensive it is to live in the Bay Area and this cost leaves even middle-income families struggling to pay their bills, much less save for retirement and college. According to census data, the median household income in Contra Costa in 2019 was $99,716 which works out to $48 per hour,
