{"id":2563,"date":"2023-06-09T14:38:25","date_gmt":"2023-06-09T14:38:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/tech-institute\/initiatives\/georgetown-justice-lab\/projects\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T19:18:48","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T19:18:48","slug":"court-navigators","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/tech-institute\/programs-and-initiatives\/georgetown-justice-lab\/court-navigators\/","title":{"rendered":"Court Navigators Research"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The access to civil justice crisis looms large. An estimated 30 million people each year are reported to lack legal representation in the state courts. Without legal assistance, these individuals are at risk of suffering dire consequences for their families, their homes and their livelihoods.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2510 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/tech-institute\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/05\/McClymont-photo--214x300.jpg\" alt=\"Mary McClymont\" width=\"214\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/tech-institute\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/05\/McClymont-photo--214x300.jpg 214w, https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/tech-institute\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/05\/McClymont-photo--731x1024.jpg 731w, https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/tech-institute\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/05\/McClymont-photo--768x1075.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/tech-institute\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/05\/McClymont-photo--1097x1536.jpg 1097w, https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/tech-institute\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/05\/McClymont-photo--1463x2048.jpg 1463w, https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/tech-institute\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/05\/McClymont-photo--500x700.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/tech-institute\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/05\/McClymont-photo--740x1036.jpg 740w, https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/tech-institute\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/05\/McClymont-photo--980x1372.jpg 980w, https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/tech-institute\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/05\/McClymont-photo-.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 214px) 100vw, 214px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>One important approach to help solve the crisis is the use of \u201cnonlawyer navigators\u201d who come from communities outside the state courts to assist self-represented litigants (SRLs) with their civil legal problems. In 2019, a survey of the national landscape identified and analyzed 23 programs in 15 states and the District of Columbia and described program features and practical considerations for creating and implementing such programs.<\/p>\n<p>Mary E. McClymont, Senior Fellow at the Justice Lab, has now issued a companion piece to her 2019 report with a national update about new programs that have emerged, current programs that have continued and expanded, and lessons learned based on four years of creative activity by program leaders even in the face of a major pandemic.<\/p>\n<h2>Nonlawyer Navigators in State Courts: Part II \u2014 an Update (2023)<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/tech-institute\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2025\/09\/Nonlawyer-Navigators-in-State-Courts-Jan-2025-2.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" class=\"cx_external_link\"><span class=\"cx_external_hyperlink\">Download the Report<\/span><span class=\"visually_hide\">(This link opens in a new tab)<\/span><span class=\"cx_external_icon\"><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/tech-institute\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2025\/09\/Nonlawyer-Navigators-in-State-Courts-Jan-2025-2.pdf\" class=\"pdfemb-viewer\" style=\"\" data-width=\"max\" data-height=\"max\" data-toolbar=\"bottom\" data-toolbar-fixed=\"off\">Nonlawyer-Navigators-in-State-Courts-Jan-2025<\/a>\n<h2>Nonlawyer Navigators in State Courts: an Emerging Consensus (2019)<\/h2>\n<p>By Mary E. McClymont, Senior Fellow with the Georgetown Justice Lab<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/tech-institute\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/06\/Nonlawyer-Navigators-in-State-Courts.pdf\">Download the Report<\/a><\/p>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/tech-institute\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/06\/Nonlawyer-Navigators-in-State-Courts.pdf\" class=\"pdfemb-viewer\" style=\"\" data-width=\"max\" data-height=\"max\" data-toolbar=\"bottom\" data-toolbar-fixed=\"off\">Nonlawyer Navigators in State Courts<\/a>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The access to civil justice crisis looms large. An estimated 30 million people each year are reported to lack legal representation in the state courts. Without legal assistance, these individuals [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13665,"featured_media":0,"parent":1757,"menu_order":4,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":"","_tec_slr_enabled":"","_tec_slr_layout":""},"class_list":["post-2563","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"ticketed":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/tech-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/tech-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/tech-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/tech-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13665"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/tech-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2563"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/tech-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9221,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/tech-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2563\/revisions\/9221"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/tech-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/tech-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}