The American Civil Justice Crisis

Twenty million Americans find themselves involved with a civil lawsuit in state court each year. Seventy-five percent of these people lack counsel. These cases involve matters of deep, often life-altering significance to these fifteen million pro se litigants, including debt collection, eviction, child custody and support, and domestic violence. With so much in the balance, our civil justice system needs to get these cases right. But it often fails to do so. The consequences are considerable and unevenly distributed, with marginalized communities suffering disproportionately. The American civil justice system is in a state of crisis and requires major reforms.

This seminar will introduce students to various aspects of the American civil justice crisis. Topics will include the demography of contemporary civil litigation and the role played by repeat players (debt buyers and institutional landlords, for instance) in driving litigation trends; the long-term causes of the crisis and its effects on various aspects of social welfare, including health and education; and possible reforms. Students will study procedural doctrines that often get neglected in first-year civil procedure courses, including doctrines relating to the entry of default judgments and wage and property garnishment. They will explore due process doctrine, why it has failed to evolve to respond to this crisis, and whether it offers a viable avenue for reform. Students will examine rules regulating the supply of legal help and their effect on the market for legal services. They will assess the efficacy of various efforts that enterprising courts, working within tight budget limitations, have devised to make litigation fairer and more equitable.

The seminar will include guest speakers with various perspectives on the American civil justice crisis. Guest speakers will include judges with experience handling the types of cases the seminar will focus on; practitioners who have worked in eviction and debt collection litigation; and advocates pursuing various types of reforms.

Grades will be based on a final paper and a presentation.