The Judicial Crossroads Task Force Access To Justice (ATJ) Committee, appointed in
October 2009, was asked to identify constitutional, statutory, court rule, or other changes that
could be implemented to overcome barriers to access to justice in light of current funding and
other challenges. The committee agreed that overcoming these barriers would require a
system-wide approach; an effective justice system is more than what happens in courts and
entails coordination of efforts by judicial and extra-judicial stakeholders. The committee also
articulated guiding principles as touchstones for its work and identified two overarching
questions: (1) what are the economic and demographic/diversity barriers to access to justice;
and (2) what ongoing methods can be used to facilitate the planning, coordination, and
evaluation of access efforts? The committee identified seven areas of transformation and
impact in response to the first question and proposed creating a Justice Advisory Board for
Access and Fairness to address the second.