Empire Justice Center’s Statement on Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman’s Plan of Action for Access to Justice in Civil Courts

Empire Justice Center applauds New York’s Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman for his leadership using his Law Day address on May 3rd as a platform to present his plan for the Judiciary to take the lead in aggressively addressing our state’s crisis in civil legal services.   The course the Chief Judge laid out has the potential to transform our State from a haphazard funder of these cost effective and life altering services into a model for other states to follow in their pursuit of providing access to justice for all.
 
We look forward to working with Chief Judge Lippman, his esteemed team at OCA, NYSBA and with Helaine Barnett as head of the newly formed Task Force to Expand Access to Civil Legal Services in New York to craft a “comprehensive, multifaceted systemic approach to providing counsel to the indigent in civil cases,” that will allow our state to achieve the goal of “making equal justice not just an ideal, but truly a reality in our state." 

Bravo Chief Judge.