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WASHINGTON— Legal experts came together to discuss the role of data in understanding and implementing civil legal aid on the latest episode of Legal Services Corporation’s (LSC) “Talk Justice” podcast released today. Guests James Sandman, president emeritus of the ���˶���; David Udell, executive director of the National Center for Access to Justice (NCAJ); and Logan Cornett, director of research at the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System (IAALS), joined LSC Emerging Leaders Council member Jason Tashea to offer their perspectives on the importance of data collection for increasing access to justice.   

IAALS recently released their study assessing the justice needs of people across income levels, , to enable research-informed progress in closing the justice gap. NCAJ has recently updated the , which tracks how well U.S. states have adopted best practices for ensuring access to justice, ranking each state accordingly. 

Over the last decade, LSC has put a larger emphasis on understanding the outcomes of legal aid through data, explained Sandman. Data is not only important for showing funders the evidence of an organization’s impact to secure resources—it can also help guide the use of those limited resources. 

“One of the most difficult decisions the executive director of a legal aid organization needs to make is whom to serve, and what level of service to provide,” said Sandman. “Lots of people have to be turned away and of those who are accepted for services, some people get only brief advice and counsel, others get extended service—to make informed decisions about whom to serve with what level of service, you need good data.” 

The conversation brought to light the need for a centralized body of nationwide research on civil legal proceedings. Comprehensive data could be used to recognize patterns that demonstrate unequal access to justice. 

Udell noted that there is an increasing awareness of the impact of systemic racism on criminal justice that has not been developed as fully in civil law, in part due to this lack of data. “All of the work that’s been done [on criminal law] needs to be done on the civil side to much better understand how race affects the decision making around predatory lending, redlining, and even the diversity of the bench.” 

Talk Justice episodes are available on LSC's website and on Spotify, Stitcher, Apple and other popular podcast apps. The podcast is sponsored by LSC’s Leaders Council.  

Future episodes of Talk Justice will explore remedying bad paper’s impact on specific veteran populations and how geospatial data can improve civil legal aid services.