Civil legal aid helps ensure fairness for all in America’s justice system, regardless of how much money you have. It provides legal help for people to protect their livelihoods, their health, and their families. It furnishes access to information – whether through easy-to-understand forms, court-based self-help centers, and legal assistance and representation – so people can know their rights.
When we say the Pledge of Allegiance, we close “with justice for all.” We say these words as if they were a current reality, and yet they are not.
For more than 40 years, Martha Bergmark has been a leader in the movement to fulfill our nation’s inspiring – but still unmet – promise of just for all. From her present vantage point as executive director of Voices for Civil Justice, the new national communications hub for civil legal aid, Martha will share her perspectives on both the crisis that confronts our civil justice system, with millions of Americans lacking basic access to justice, and today’s encouraging prospects for solving it.