01/11/2021 Press Release - Attorney General’s COVID-19 Access to Justice Task Force Releases Final Report
This Task Force brings together high-level and diverse leaders with expertise in a myriad of sectors including health, disaster recovery, business, government, housing, and many others to confront these new challenges. The goal of the Task Force is to ensure that when Marylanders encounter the civil legal system, justice is accessible, fair and equitable. Equitable access to the civil justice system will protect public health, spur economic recovery and growth, and reduce further harms to the most vulnerable. The Task Force will focus its efforts on the key short-term and long-term civil legal issues created or exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, including housing, consumer fraud and debt, and public benefits. It will also address the looming deficit in civil legal aid funding and the disparities in outcomes among communities of color. The Task Force will develop strategies, devise solutions, and drive reforms and innovations necessary to ensure equity, fairness and access to justice for all Marylanders.
Attorney General Frosh: “The COVID-19 pandemic has made a civil justice system already difficult to navigate even more complicated and inaccessible. Massive job losses and difficulty obtaining unemployment benefits will result in a myriad of life-threatening consequences, including loss of housing and lack of basic necessities like health care and food. The Task Force and Congressional Advisory Committee brings together some of the best and brightest leaders in our state to help develop solutions to many of the dire situations confronting so many of our friends and neighbors."
Reena K. Shah, Executive Director of the Maryland Access to Justice Commission: “Equal justice under law is a right not a privilege. Access to Justice means that anyone encountering the civil justice system - which adjudicates issues like evictions, consumer debt and domestic violence - should have a fair shake at justice. But even before COVID-19, people were losing their cases, not because they did anything wrong, but because they did not have the legal information or help they needed. COVID-19 has made that problem worse, and unless we act now, the consequences of injustice will endanger public health, hamper economic recovery, and be disproportionately harmful to black families. The Maryland Access to Justice Commission is proud to partner with the Attorney General during this unprecedented time to advance the promise of equal justice for all."
Meeting of the full Task Force was held on Nov. 12, 2020, 10am-12pm.
Meeting of the Attorney General's COVID-19 Access to Justice Task Force was held on Thursday, October 15, 2020 at 10:00 a.m. AGENDA
Meeting of the Attorney General's COVID-19 Access to Justice Task Force was held on Thursday, September 17, 2020 at 10:00 a.m. AGENDA
Keep Marylanders Housed.
Keep Marylanders Fed.
Keep Marylanders Safe.
Keep Marylanders Secure.
Keep Marylanders Connected.