The Office for Access to Justice is pleased to announce the Access to Justice Prize, a prize competition to advance the innovative solutions that are urgently needed to address the widespread justice gap and increase access to justice for all.
Donor Name: Office for Access to Justice
State: All States
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Awards and Prizes
Deadline: 03/31/2025
Size of the Grant: $10,000 to $100,000
Grant Duration: 1 Year
Details:
The Access to Justice Prize seeks to support leaders on the front lines of the access to justice crisis to develop these strategic solutions. Your innovative ideas are likely to be the most effective because of your visibility into specific barriers and gaps, your connection to impacted communities, and your understanding of available resources and tools.
Through the Access to Justice Prize, the Office for Access to Justice aims to advance general public awareness about access to justice gaps; prompt new and innovative solutions that increase access to justice; equip and support the development of such solutions; and promote the replication and expansion of such solutions.
Access to justice barriers are often exacerbated for rural Americans, and the unique and complex hurdles for people living in rural areas—long travel times, limited internet access, lack of attorneys, and more—are too often overlooked. When compared with their urban counterparts, rural Americans are more likely to have household incomes below the federal poverty line and they are more likely to face civil legal problems. In 2022, the Legal Services Corporation found that 77% of rural low-income households experienced at least one civil legal problem in the previous year, and 40% experienced at least five. Yet these households are even less likely to find the assistance needed to navigate these issues: Rural low-income Americans do not receive any or enough legal help for 94% of the substantial civil legal problems they encountered.
Types of Innovative Ideas that May be Submitted
For 2025, the Access to Justice Prize invites applicants to submit an innovative idea to expand access to justice within a rural jurisdiction and/or community. An innovative idea that would “expand access to justice” means an idea that expands access, accelerates innovation, or safeguards the integrity of civil or criminal legal systems. This could include ideas that would seek to improve legal systems, processes, interactions or outcomes, or to better solve justice problems within rural areas or for rural communities. Some examples include:
- Expanding access to legal representation, legal assistance, or legal information
- Utilizing alternatives to counsel or other innovative legal assistance models
- Breaking down barriers to accessing legal systems, including barriers disproportionately faced by rural Americans, like lack of proximity to a courthouse, ability to travel or access to broadband
- Simplifying legal processes, systems, forms, or language
- Reducing disparities among those navigating, or impacted by, legal systems
- Reducing the need for interaction with civil and criminal legal systems or developing efficient alternatives to justice processes
- Reducing any harmful effects of legal systems
- Accessing and utilizing technology to expedite and promote efficiency within courts and legal systems
- Advancing cost-saving strategies
- Expanding language access, utilizing written, spoken, and sign languages, as well as auxiliary communication aids and services
- Expanding access for people with disabilities
- Expanding access for specific rural populations, such as Tribal communities, low-income communities, communities of color, or other historically underserved communities
- Identifying and establishing innovative cross-sector, cross-agency, or otherwise unique partnerships to expand access to legal systems
- Reducing financial or economic barriers to accessing legal systems or economic conditions imposed on those impacted by legal systems
- Improving legal or other supports for victims and/or survivors
- Expanding access to legal systems by taking court/legal processes or assistance to communities, outside of the courtroom
- Expanding access to basic and collateral needs for those in rural communities who interact with legal systems, including, for example, housing, food, employment, etc.
- Promoting efficiency of systems or processes through customer or user experience strategies.
Prize
The competition will run on a one-year cycle, starting in January 2025, and will feature two judging phases:
- Finalist Selection: Up to five finalists will receive $5,000 each and then refine their proposals over a six-month phase in preparation to compete for the grand prize.
- Grand Prize Selection: Finalists will present their solutions at an Access to Justice Showcase, where judges will select the grand prize winner to receive $50,000.
Eligibility Criteria
This Competition is open only to:
- 501(c)(3) non-profit entities;
- Institutions of higher learning or institutions of higher education;
- Units of local, state, tribal and territorial government, including courts, public defender offices, prosecutorial agencies, and law enforcement entities.
To be eligible to win a prize under this Challenge, an applicant must:
- If a private entity, be incorporated in and maintain a primary place of business in the United States;
- Not be a federal entity or federal employee acting within the scope of their employment;
- Not be an employee of the Department of Justice (DOJ) acting in their personal capacity or official capacity;
- Not be an individual or organization that is currently suspended or debarred by the federal government;
- Not be any party involved with the design, production, execution, judging, or distribution of the Challenge or the immediate family of such a party.
For more information, visit Office for Access to Justice.
