Justice Work & Health Equity

In the 2022-23 academic year, Innovation for Justice partnered with University of Utah Health to address the challenge: how might we explore innovative approaches to embedding civil justice problem-solving in a healthcare setting?

Throughout the country, medical-legal partnerships (MLPs) seek to address health inequities through integrating lawyers in healthcare settings, working with care teams to address all of the patient’s needs, not only their physical symptoms. (Caitlin Murphy, Making the Case for Medical-Legal Partnerships: An Updated Review of the Evidence, 2013-2020, National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership (Oct. 2020).) Empirical evidence supports the efficacy of MLPs, which raises the research question: can those benefits be replicated and / or expanded through potentially more cost-effective, community-centered non-lawyer legal services made possible by regulatory reform?

Regulatory reform refers to changes being made to Unauthorized Practice of Law (UPL) restrictions. In nearly every state, UPL restrictions create a lawyer monopoly, mandating that only lawyers can provide legal advice. Utah is leading the country in the re-regulation of the legal profession, allowing for innovative service models where nonlawyers can provide limited-scope legal advice to those who need it with court approval.

This design work resulted in the proposal of a new regulatory reform-based service model: the Community-Based Justice Worker (CBJW) model. The CBJW model would embed Community Justice Workers in the new West Valley hospital and health center. Community Justice Workers would be trauma-informed, trained and certified legal advocates from the West Valley community equipped to provide legal advice on high need civil justice issues as part of wrap-around services for West Valley patients.

View Project Brief: Innovative Approaches To Embedding Civil Legal Services And Civil Justice Problem-Solving Within University Of Utah Health

Ready Summary of i4J’s Community Justice Worker collaboration with the University of Utah Health: Community Justice Workers in Patient Care: A Collaboration Between Innovation for Justice and University of Utah Health

Read Fall Report: Innovation for Justice: Embedding Regulatory Reform-Based Civil Justice Problem-Solving in Patient Care

Read Spring Report: Mapping the Community Justice Worker Service Model