Access to Justice Network Conference 2026

Name: Behaviorally Informed Court Reminders: What the Evidence Says and How to Apply It
Start: 2026-10-22T13:30:00-0400
End: 2026-10-22T15:00:00-0400

Behaviorally Informed Court Reminders: What the Evidence Says and How to Apply It

Thursday October 22, 2026 1:30pm - 3:00pm EDT

Cincinnati Convention Center

Access to justice depends on people understanding what the court is telling them — and right now, most court communications fail that test. People miss court dates not because they don't care, but because the notice was confusing, the date was buried in legalese, or life intervened, and they didn’t receive a reminder or have support to make a plan to attend. People leave fines unpaid not because they're defiant, but because the payment notice didn't make options clear or consequences real. Every missed appearance and every unpaid fine trigger a cascade — warrants, license suspensions, job loss, housing instability — that could have been prevented by more effective communication.
This session presents the behavioral science research on why court communications fail and what evidence-based redesign looks like in practice. Published research on court reminder programs has identified specific design elements that measurably improve appearance rates: making court dates visually prominent, highlighting consequences of inaction in plain language, providing clear options for how to resolve a case, prompting people to make a specific plan (not just "remember to show up" but "who will watch your kids, how will you get there, what will you bring"), and providing accessible resources for help. These aren't intuitive design choices — they come from behavioral science research on how people actually process information under stress, and they've been tested with real outcomes data.
A practitioner perspective from Hamilton County grounds the research in implementation reality: what it actually takes to redesign court communications inside a clerk's office, including the common challenges that arise when you try to change language and formats that have been used for decades. The session includes activities designed to give participants a "behavioral mindset" — including a demonstration of how easy it is to forget a court date even when you're paying attention.
It will also have opportunities for participants to identify improvements to court communications themselves. Participants will identify specific improvements using the evidence-based design principles covered in the session. They'll leave with published guides to court reminder program design, a checklist of evidence-based communication principles, and a marked-up version of an example court communication -- that can help them make changes in their own jurisdiction.

Speakers

Anne Stotler

ideas42, (Un)Warranted

Anne Stotler is a Principal Behavioral Designer at ideas42. She leads partnerships with courts and other stakeholders to improve court date communications nationwide through the (Un)warranted initiative, which has already prevented over 125K missed court dates and the resulting warrants... Read More →

Nick Anderson

Hamilton County Clerk of Courts

Nick Anderson is the Assistant Chief of Compliance for the Hamilton County Clerk of Courts. He is a graduate from the University of Cincinnati College of Law, where he served as a Senior Policy Fellow for the Ohio Innocence Project and Fellow for the Jones Center for Race, Gender... Read More →

Thursday October 22, 2026 1:30pm - 3:00pm EDT
Cincinnati Convention Center 537 Elm St, Cincinnati, OH 45202

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Access to Justice Network Conference 2026

Anne Stotler

Nick Anderson

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Access to Justice Network Conference 2026

Anne Stotler

Nick Anderson

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