The Limits of Unbundled Legal Assistance: A Randomized Study in a Massachusetts District Court and Prospects for the Future

Greiner, D. James; Pattanayak, Cassandra Wolos; Hennessy, Jonathan

doi:10.2139/ssrn.1948286

Cited by 42 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…One randomised controlled study by Greiner et al. () found that providing limited legal assistance (i.e. instructions on the summary eviction process, help in filling court related forms) resulted in more than one‐third of occupants regaining their possessions at the end of litigation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, there is often a disconnect between mental health and civil legal problems like evictions, as mental health providers and legal aid providers mostly operate independently. One randomised controlled study by Greiner et al (2012) found that providing limited legal assistance (i.e. instructions on the summary eviction process, help in filling court related forms) resulted in more than one-third of occupants regaining their possessions at the end of litigation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…An eviction, particularly due to nonpayment of rent, can affect a tenant's credit rating and thereby hinder a tenant's access to credit and rental markets after eviction. Evictions can even make a family ineligible for certain kinds of emergency shelter assistance (Greiner, Pattanayak, & Hennessy, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Systematic review of psychosocial factors associated with evictions

Tsai

Huang

2018

Health Soc Care Community

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Evictions from rented accommodations are a common pathway to homelessness and can negatively impact the lives of individuals and communities worldwide. There have been only few interventions developed to address evictions, and it is important to first understand factors associated with evictions. This systematic review included all available peer-reviewed articles on the topic published in the international literature from 1900 to 2017 and identified 10 peer-reviewed studies of evictions conducted in the United States, Canada, Amsterdam and Britain. From these studies, four categories of factors associated with evictions were identified. These factors were financial hardships, sociodemographic characteristics, substance use and other health problems. While many studies had large sample sizes, the majority of studies were cross-sectional. Together, our review found that there were several salient factors known to be associated with evictions which may benefit from intervention. However, more prospective studies on evictions and development of interventions are needed.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Systematic review of psychosocial factors associated with evictions

Tsai

Huang

2018

Health Soc Care Community

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“…52 A randomized controlled trial conducted by Harvard researchers found that tenants facing eviction who were offered full representation were significantly more likely to remain in the home than those who received only limited legal assistance. 53 Finally, the police can work with legal aid service providers to help protect domestic violence victims. Having access to legal services increases the likelihood victims will report domestic violence.…”

Section: A Outcomes For Domestic Violence Survivors Improve With CIVmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reducing Domestic Violence and Improving Outcomes for Children: Funding Civil Legal Aid to Maximize Impact

Chiappetta¹

2019

Family Court Review

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Domestic violence survivors and children in foster care often experience significant unmet civil legal needs. Legal aid services, when adequately funded, can help close the justice gap for these two populations while improving safety, stability, and court efficiencies. However, despite ample literature demonstrating how legal aid can improve outcomes, almost half of those seeking legal aid services are turned away due to lack of resources. This article reviews the research and data about how legal aid can improve outcomes for people in the domestic violence and child welfare contexts. It also discusses how several stateadministered federal funding opportunities-including the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) Victim Assistance Formula Grant Program, Title IV-D child support funds, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) basic block grants-can fund the needed civil legal help. Key Points for the Family Court Community:Domestic violence survivors may require assistance with filing protection orders, obtaining custody, securing and retaining housing, rectifying identity theft, and maintaining employment.When court-based services help self-represented litigants with custody, visitation, and paternity matters, domestic violence survivors can better access safety for themselves and their children.Receiving full legal representation has been shown to help domestic violence survivors obtain protective orders, gain custody of their children, and navigate the divorce process.When legal aid helps address some of the underlying legal needs of families, it can prevent a child from entering foster care; if the child does enter, it can reduce time spent in foster care.Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) Victim Assistance Formula Grants, Title IV-D child support funds, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) basic block grants are three state-administered sources of federal funding that allow states discretion to use funds for civil legal aid for domestic violence survivors, parents with child support matters, and children in foster care.

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“…Since then, and particularly over the past three decades, experiments have been used to explore topics as diverse as the democratic peace theory (Tomz and Weeks 2013), the determinants and consequences of prejudice (Hutchings and Piston 2011), and continued efforts to understand why people vote and how their minds are changed (Green and Gerber 2004;Shaw et al 2012;Butler and Broockman 2011;Broockman and Kalla 2018). Though public law scholars have been relatively slow to adopt experimental methodology, they have published experiments on preventing corporate fraud (Guttentag et al 2008), backlash over judicial activism (Fontana and Braman 2012), and the efficacy of legal assistance programs and right to counsel rules regarding housing disputes (Greiner et al 2012;Seron et al 2001), among others (see generally Epstein and King 2002).…”

Section: Experiments In Political Sciencementioning

confidence: 99%

Judicialization and Its Effects: Experiments as a Way Forward

Hevron

2018

Laws

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Law and courts play a larger role in American policymaking than in similar countries-and a larger role than ever before in American politics. However, systematic efforts to evaluate the effects of judicialized policymaking are consistently plagued by problems of causal inference. Experiments offer a way forward. Causal claims by public law scholars are often undercut by validity difficulties that are avoidable if scholars engaging in observational research incorporate the tenets of experiments in their research designs, as well as if more public law scholars attempted to isolate the effects of judicialization in controlled settings, such as survey or laboratory experiments. An original survey experiment on the effects of media reporting on tort reform suggests that experiments have much to offer public law scholars. Despite certain challenges in implementation, experiments and observational research based on experiments provide a promising path for assessing the varied-and important-effects of judicialized policymaking.

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The Limits of Unbundled Legal Assistance: A Randomized Study in a Massachusetts District Court and Prospects for the Future

Cited by 42 publications

References 5 publications

Systematic review of psychosocial factors associated with evictions

Systematic review of psychosocial factors associated with evictions

Reducing Domestic Violence and Improving Outcomes for Children: Funding Civil Legal Aid to Maximize Impact

Judicialization and Its Effects: Experiments as a Way Forward

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