Justice is out of reach for too many Americans. We're finding solutions.

On June 2, 2025, NCAJ and the Stein Center for Law and Ethics convened at Fordham Law a group of 25 experts for Innovation Day on Ability to Pay -- a day of dialogue on how to use research to better understand and improve the policies that guide judges in making determinations on people's ability to pay government-imposed fines and fees. NCAJ had earlier collected and described examples of such policies in the Ability to Pay Report and the Fines and Fees Justice Index.

We are excited to announce the 2025 International Access to Justice Forum will be held in New York City on September 26th and September 27th, 2025, hosted by Fordham & NYU Law Schools, including the National Center for Access to Justice. This international event has been at the center of the creative advocacy and scholarship around Access to Justice, and we are looking forward to continuing that tradition.

In eight new articles arising out of the Access to Justice Solutions Symposium, the public event hosted by NCAJ on February 9, 2024 in partnership with the Stein Center for Law & Ethics and Fordham's Urban Law Journal, scholars and advocates now discuss and analyze important policy solutions at the leading edge of the access to justice movement.

Government imposed fines and fees can add up to thousands of dollars. People able to pay can close their cases quickly and move on with their lives. However, people unable to pay face a wide range of harms. It shouldn’t be this way. Meaningful ability to pay determinations can reduce these harms and create greater equity.

On February 9th, 2024, more than 500 peopled gathered or tuned in via stream to the AtJ Solutions Symposium. The sessions were videotaped that day. If you'd like to re-see what you saw, or see the sessions for the first time, you can do so at the links, below. Take a look, consider the progress of the access to justice movement, and join in the work to increase access to justice in America.

Update: View the Webinar (link below) from March 14, 2024, when NCAJ joined the Center for Public Health Law Research of Temple University Beasley School of Law and the National Consumer Law Center for NCLC's national webinar introducing these organizations' three new tools for increasing fairness in consumer debt litigation.