Power unchecked is power abused. That’s why we work to preserve everyone’s right to a day in court.
But many of those with power have few restraints. And they keep devising new ways to block ordinary people’s access to the courts.
Across the country, corporate wrongdoers are amending their contracts to ban individual and class action litigation. They’re also working to expand federal preemption, forced arbitration and court secrecy to preclude many suits and bury the rest.
What Public Justice Is Doing
Click the video above to hear from our Paul Bland who spoke with Mass Tort News LegalCast regarding our Access to Justice work.
Court Secrecy
We’re working to overturn overly broad secrecy orders in a substantial number of cases, establish important new precedents, and change the culture in which courts enter sealing orders without justification or even serious consideration.
Disparate Impact
We’re working to protect this avenue of relief where it has been recognized — and argue for its expansion into new areas of law.
Forced Arbitration
We’re fighting forced arbitration clauses that can still be defeated in court, and using our extensive expertise to advocate with lawyers, public interest organizations, regulators, legislators and the public about how forced arbitration is used to violate the law with impunity.
Federal Preemption
Through our litigation, we are protecting state laws that offer meaningful justice to people.
Class Action Preservation
We are combating the strategies corporations endlessly devise to deny people the right to pursue class actions and fight to expand the availability of class actions where they are necessary to provide a meaningful remedy to victims of illegal conduct.
Standing Doctrine
We are fighting barriers that keep consumers and workers from having their claims heard in court by challenging harmful interpretations of Article III standing and ensuring that the court system remains a viable path to obtaining justice.
Fighting the Incarceration and Detention Industrial Complex
We are dismantling immunity doctrines and other procedural barriers that deny incarcerated people access to justice. By making the civil justice system more accessible for incarcerated people and their families, we aim to mitigate human suffering, to make working with carceral facilities unprofitable, and to support a new vision of criminal justice that prioritizes restoration and healing over punishment and violence.
