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People-Centered Data and Reform: From Court Records to Community Feedback
Wednesday October 21, 2026 9:00am - 10:30am EDT
Cincinnati Convention Center
Every year, approximately 66 million cases flow through state courts — but we rarely reach out to the people behind those cases for feedback on their experience with the system and how they feel they could be better served. Traditional court research is organized around institutions: cases, dockets, judicial decisions. This "courts-first" approach obscures how the same individuals move through and across court systems over time, making it harder to identify patterns like frequent court involvement, multi-system entanglement, and the cumulative toll of repeated legal crises. It also fails to adequately identify the specific procedures or aspects of a case where self-represented litigants struggle most or what type of help could help bridge that gap. This session presents a different starting point: what happens when you reorganize court reform around people instead of cases, and what happens when you go beyond court data entirely and ask communities directly about their legal needs?
Two complementary approaches anchor the session. The first uses a novel person-centered framework, employed by Pew in partnership with the South Carolina Judicial Branch, that links court records across case types to reveal how individuals navigate multiple parts of the justice system —traffic court, debt collection, ordinance violations — often simultaneously. The project focuses on three rural counties where legal gaps are even more pronounced and research on court interactions and processes is particularly limited. Panelists will share the methodology, key research findings, and discuss how these insights are being translated into actionable policy solutions in South Carolina.
The second approach comes from the District of Columbia, where access-to-justice leaders went to communities to solicit feedback on a new idea – a regulatory reform concept that could invite community justice workers into the civil justice system. Through this process, leaders learned more about legal needs, service gaps, and barriers — and also heard from social service and other professionals who were often called upon to support individuals facing legal crises. Their process of identifying stakeholders, engaging unexpected partners, grounding recommendations in user feedback, and navigating the most challenging questions offers a replicable framework for any jurisdiction ready to start thinking how to ground legal reform in the user experience.
Together, these approaches represent a fundamental shift in how justice systems can understand the people they serve. One reorganizes data that already exists; the other generates feedback and uses it directly in guiding court reform. Whether you're a court administrator with access to case management data or a community organization wondering how to make the case for reform, you will leave the session with concrete ideas on how they might design user-centered strategies to address justice challenges in their own jurisdiction.
Speakers
IG

Ingrid Gillies

Pew Charitable Trusts
Ingrid Gillies is an associate for Pew’s courts and communities project, providing research and technical assistance to courts and state partners. Before joining Pew, Gillies worked at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) on the data science and analytics team where... Read More →
avatar for Hannah Honeycutt

Hannah Honeycutt

Executive Director, South Carolina Access to Justice
avatar for Erin Larkin

Erin Larkin

Director, Access to Justice Unit, District of Columbia Courts Self-Help
I lead the Access to Justice Unit at the DC Courts, where I focus on reducing barriers that prevent people from accessing the justice system. My work includes initiatives such as community justice workers, court navigators, self-help services, digital accessibility, and plain-language... Read More →
avatar for Reena Shah

Reena Shah

Executive Director, Maryland Access to Justice Commission
A long-time advocate of social justice and social change, Reena has served as Executive Director of the Maryland Access to Justice Commission (A2JC) since 2015. She was named by former Attorney General Frosh to chair the legislatively mandated Access to Counsel in Evictions Task Force... Read More →
avatar for Nancy Drane

Nancy Drane

Executive Director, DC Access to Justice Commission
Nancy Drane has served as Executive Director of the D.C. Access to Justice Commission since 2016, leading efforts to expand access to civil legal help for District residents. She previously spent 13 years at the Children’s Law Center, representing children and families and later... Read More →
Wednesday October 21, 2026 9:00am - 10:30am EDT
Cincinnati Convention Center 537 Elm St, Cincinnati, OH 45202
  Research

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