Voglio sapere a riguardo di…

27793

Presidential Documents
Federal Register Vol. 86, No. 97
Friday, May 21, 2021

Title 3

Memorandum of May 18, 2021

The President
Restoring the Department of Justices Access-to-Justice Function and Reinvigorating the White House Legal Aid Interagency Roundtable Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and in order to increase meaningful access to our legal system and an array of Federal programs, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Policy. This Nation was founded on the ideal of equal justice under the law. Everyone in this country should be able to vindicate their rights and avail themselves of the protections that our laws afford on equal footing. Whether we realize this ideal hinges on the extent to which everyone in the United States has meaningful access to our legal system. Legal services are crucial to the fair and effective administration of our laws and public programs, and the stability of our society.
Recognizing the importance of access to justice and the power of legal aid, the Department of Justice DOJ in 2010 launched an access-to-justice initiative. In 2016, DOJ formally established the Office for Access to Justice.
This office worked in partnership with other DOJ components to coordinate policy initiatives on topics including criminal indigent defense, enforcement of fines and fees, language barriers in access to the courts, and civil legal aid. The DOJ and the White House Domestic Policy Council also launched the Legal Aid Interagency Roundtable LAIR in 2012 to work with civil legal aid partners to advance Federal programs; create and disseminate tools to provide information about civil legal aid and Federal funding opportunities; and generate research to inform policy that improves access to justice.
The LAIRs successes prompted President Obama to issue the memorandum of September 24, 2015 Establishment of the White House Legal Aid Interagency Roundtable, which formally established LAIR as a White House initiative. Using the White Houses convening power, LAIR examined innovative and evidence-based solutions for access to justice, from medical-legal partnerships to improve health outcomes and decrease health costs to better procedures in court hearings for individuals representing themselves.

jbell on DSKJLSW7X2PROD with MEMO_FR

But there is much more for the Federal Government to do. According to a 2017 study by the Legal Services Corporation, low-income Americans receive inadequate or no professional legal assistance with regard to over 80 percent of the civil legal problems they face in a given year. All too often, unaddressed legal issues push people into poverty. At the same time, in the criminal legal system, those who cannot afford private counsel often receive a lower-quality defense because public defender caseloads are overburdened.
The coronavirus disease 2019 COVID19 pandemic has further exposed and exacerbated inequities in our justice system, as courts and legal service providers have been forced to curtail in-person operations, often without the resources or technology to offer remote-access or other safe alternatives.
These access limitations have compounded the effects of other harms wrought by the pandemic. These problems have touched the lives of many persons in this country, particularly low-income people and people of color.

VerDate Sep<11>2014

18:53 May 20, 2021

Jkt 253001

PO 00000

Frm 00003

Fmt 4705

Sfmt 4790

E:FRFM21MYO0.SGM

21MYO0