Access to Justice Commission outlines grants, loan-repayment assistance and projects to expand legal help

Vice Chair Gail Ruderman Feuer and Executive Director Jack London presented the Access to Justice Commission's work, including statutory recognition in 2023 and a range of projects aimed at expanding civil legal help. London traced the commission's origin to 1996 and described its transition from State Bar staffing to an independent public-benefit nonprofit. Feuer emphasized the commission's grantmaking and policy work, including a $5 million annual infrastructure and innovation grant program.

The presenters highlighted several programs: the equal access fund (described as having distributed more than $500,000,000 in general-fund money to legal organizations over 27 years), a loan-repayment assistance project that has reimbursed more than $750,000 in individual student-loan payments over roughly 2¼ years, and pilot projects such as 'Your Life, Your Plan' that use county law librarians and online lawyer review to help create basic estate and health-care documents. "We are now in our 5th year of selecting grantees and administering $5,000,000 a year allocated by the legislature," the presentation said.