Wage theft, loss of health benefits, eviction, family separation…these are just some of the countless civil justice issues affecting more than 150 million Americans every year. Due to a widespread lack of access to civil legal services, very few of these issues result in just outcomes. This “civil justice gap” is a major contributing force to structural inequality and systemic oppression in this country, yet it goes largely unnoticed compared to highly visible issues like criminal justice or police brutality.
In the middle of the Pandemic, I was approached by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences to create a short PSA that could help broad audiences understand the personal and societal nature of this crisis, and introduce the Academy’s report of recommendations for how to fix it.