Issues & Trends
Access to Justice Advocates Push Back Against 86% Civil Legal Funding Cut
May 20, 2026
Civil justice advocates in the District of Columbia are once again banding together to fight to preserve critical funding for District residents in need of legal assistance. Funding for the Access to Justice Initiative faces an 86 percent cut — from $31.79 million in 2026 to $4.49 million in the proposed fiscal year 2027 D.C. government budget — which would cause an estimated 38,000 District residents to lose access to critical civil legal services.
The proposed cut would place an additional strain on a civil justice system already grappling with representation gaps and case backlogs. On May 13, Nancy E. Drane, executive director of the District of Columbia Access to Justice Commission, testified at the Budget Oversight Hearing of the D.C. Council Committee of the Whole that the proposed budget overlooked the financial value of pro bono legal services. According to Drane, an average of $7 saved for every $1 invested in civil legal aid, such as Medicaid dollars, recouped public benefits and intergenerational assets.
"It's hard to fathom the idea that prevention helps people solve problems before they become bigger and more costly community crises, but we know that there are better outcomes when people have access to legal help," she said.
In her written testimony, Drane stated that the proposed reduction in funding "fundamentally undermines the D.C. Council's recognition that investing in legal help leads to a stronger and more resilient community." The move also "presents an existential threat to our entire civil justice system which, at its core, relies on the availability of free legal help to ensure fairness and equal access to justice," she added.
The Access to Justice Initiative was established by the D.C. Council in 2006 to address civil legal problems impacting the housing, safety, and financial security of the District's most vulnerable residents. Advocates argue that a drastic reduction in funding threatens both the beneficiaries of the programs currently in place and the progress that has been made in addressing systemic access to justice issues.
"System change requires long-term commitment and stable investment," said Kirra Jarratt, CEO of the DC Bar Foundation, which administers the Access to Justice Initiative. "The Access to Justice Initiative has helped build a more coordinated and responsive civil legal aid system in the District. An 86 percent cut would undermine years of progress and shift greater social and economic costs onto families, communities, and already strained public systems. It would destabilize a system that tens of thousands of District residents rely on to remain housed, safe, and economically secure."
Among those who provided written testimony in support of preserving access to justice funding were D.C. Court of Appeals Chief Judge Anna Blackburne-Rigsby and D.C. Superior Court Chief Judge Milton C. Lee Jr. In their statement, the chief judges noted that "[t]he D.C. Courts are confronted every day by the widening civil justice gap, driven by the high number of litigants who must represent themselves because they cannot afford legal counsel. For thousands of residents, meaningful access to justice depends on the availability of free or low-cost legal help … The [i]nitiative increases the opportunity for residents who are in legal crisis to have an advocate at their side when the things they most value — their children, their safety, their homes, their financial security — are at risk."
D.C. Bar President Sadina Montani addressed the initiative's impact in supporting efforts by volunteer attorneys. "Without this funding, the ability for all of the lawyers in this town to give back through pro bono service will be significantly limited. The legal services providers that are funded by this initiative are really empowering all of the volunteer lawyers that want to give back to this community," Montani said.
Additional information about the funding debate can be found on the D.C. Access to Justice Commission's website.
