America was created by people who understood that power unchecked is power abused. That’s why we have separation of powers, the Bill of Rights, and the right to a day in court.
For the past several years, however, many of those with power – in both the public and private sectors – have had few restraints. They could only be held accountable in the courts. So they unleashed an unprecedented, calculated, and fundamentally un-American attack: step by step, in area after area, they started trying to eliminate access to the courts – and, ultimately, justice itself.
That has not stopped. Look around. Throughout America, corporate wrongdoers are amending their consumer, employment, and investors’ contracts to explicitly ban individual and class action litigation. They’re working daily to expand federal preemption, mandatory arbitration, and court secrecy to preclude many suits and bury the rest.
Meanwhile, the federal government and state legislatures are increasingly considering regulations and legislation that would bar court access and eliminate Americans’ rights. We cannot let that happen.
WHAT PUBLIC JUSTICE IS DOING
Public Justice and the Public Justice Foundation launched the Access to Justice Campaign to expose, challenge, and defeat the assault taking place on the right to a day in court. The attacks are taking place on numerous fronts in numerous fashions, but they all serve a common objective: closing the courthouse doors so victims can't hold the powerful accountable. They include federal preemption, mandatory arbitration, class action bans and abuses, outrageous court secrecy, and assaults on the Constitution.
The Access to Justice Campaign educates the public and the legal community about these dangers and develops the legal tools to defeat them nationwide. It initiates and joins cutting-edge litigation designed to thwart these threats and secure the people's right to seek redress through the courts. This critical work must succeed. Justice is impossible if access to justice is denied.
For additional information:
See our full Access to Justice Case Index
See our Access to Justice Updates
And click here for our Access to Justice Campaign brochure