Edward V. Sparer Public Interest Law Forum: Illuminating Civil Justice: Data and Court Transparency as Tools for Systems Change
About the Forum
The 2024 Sparer Forum will convene a conversation around the accessibility of New York civil court data and the ways in which increased transparency can help ensure access to justice for all and support efforts to bolster system efficiency and accountability. The Forum will consider tools for public engagement and research such as court watching and explore ways that reform efforts can incorporate the lived experience of those entangled in the civil court system.
Marginalized New Yorkers, and especially women and people of color living in poverty, along with undocumented immigrants, rely on the New York civil courts for legal relief that can help them secure the essentials of life such as family stability, financial self-sufficiency, and housing. Yet many litigants are unrepresented in these legal proceedings without a right to counsel and the ability to afford an attorney, or because free legal services are scarce. Litigants (even those with counsel) often face overly complex and burdensome processes that are difficult to navigate, rampant case delays, and language barriers, which impede their ability to fully participate in cases that can determine the course of their future. These systemic challenges remain invisible without accessible data to illustrate how the courts are functioning and what experiences and case outcomes they are delivering to litigants; this in turn impedes opportunities for change.
The Forum will consider why transparency of court data matters to justice; what court data is publicly available in New York; and what law students and lawyers can do to support improvements in the New York civil justice system.
Panelists
Aissatou Barry, Assistant Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School
Rachel L. Braunstein ’03, Director of Policy, Her Justice
Shalonda Curtis-Hackett, Community Outreach Coordinator, Neighborhood Defender Service (NDS)
Denise Kronstadt ’85, Executive Director, The Fund for Modern Courts
Rosa Santana, Bond and Post-Release Director, Envision Freedom Fund (EFF)
Nakeeb Siddique, a Housing Director, Legal Aid Society
Moderators
Sarah Corsico ’24, Sparer Fellow
Sophia Overall ’24, Sparer Fellow
Nicole Reed ’24, Sparer Fellow
Sponsored by the Edward V. Sparer Public Interest Law Fellowship.
After the program, please join us for a reception.