At the New Hampshire Supreme Court, Rockefeller Center Students Present Research on Access to Justice

In Fall 2023, the New Hampshire Supreme Court requested that the Rockefeller Center's Class of 1964 Policy Research Shop (PRS) evaluate the efficacy of New Hampshire's existing Circuit Court Navigator Program and assess policy options for the Program's future. Dartmouth public policy students JJ Dega '26, Sofia Piraino '27, Annabelle Pietryka '26, and Dylan Griffith '25 conducted research detailed in a PRS Policy Brief, which was presented to members of the Court, including Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald '83 and Senior Associate Justice James Bassett '78 on April 11, 2024.

Across New Hampshire, many people navigate the court system without legal representation, which is not guaranteed in civil cases like landlord-tenant disputes, probate cases, and guardianship and adoption cases. These self-represented litigants, or "SRLs," can face significant procedural barriers in the legal system due to factors such as their rural location, disability status, technological skills, or language fluency. The Court Navigator Program seeks to address these challenges with dedicated court personnel to provide legal information (not legal advice) and help SRLs file forms and determine the next steps in their cases.

The students' research, which began during the fall term in Dartmouth's Introduction to Public Policy Research course (PBPL 45) taught by Professor Kristin Smith, developed from a meeting with Heather Kulp, Senior Circuit Court Administrator. Over the following six months, under the mentorship of Dr. Elizabeth Pfeffer, Rockefeller Center Postdoctoral Research Associate, the students interviewed 19 stakeholders within and beyond the Court on access to justice initiatives, conducted two days of observation with the Navigators in Nashua and Concord, and fielded an original survey of SRLs served by a Navigator, yielding 34 responses analyzed in the brief.

"As a student of public policy, it was astounding to see the high levels of efficacy within the Program," Dega said. "All SRL respondents reported 'mostly' or 'completely' understanding their case after a Navigator interaction, with all SRL respondents reporting either a 9 or 10 with Program satisfaction [on a 10-point increasing scale]. These statistics make the Navigator Program more effective and popular than any other program I've studied."

Findings across methodologies on the Navigator Program's efficacy, accessibility, and sustainability informed the brief's recommendations for short-, medium- and long-term reforms to the Court's access to justice initiatives. These proposals range from smaller actions such as clarifying when and where SRLs can receive a Navigator's help to bigger initiatives such as hiring additional Navigators and collecting continuous data to evaluate SRL need levels and experiences within the court system.

"The students' showed an impressive ability to synthesize diverse research data and juggle competing priorities when crafting recommendations," Pfeffer said. "When considering the future of the program, they evaluated not just what should be done, but how to do it."

On April 11 at the Supreme Court in Concord, the students shared their findings with 11 members of the Court, including Chief Justice MacDonald '83, Justice Bassett '78, Kulp, and the two current Navigators, Patty Cole and Manu Cunha. They later presented the research to a June session of the New Hampshire Access to Justice Commission.

"I found the Court truly inspiring," Piraino said. "The passion and dedication to improving the experiences of each individual self-represented litigant demonstrates the positive power that both court workers and initiatives can have on litigants' lives."

"Seeing the impact that the Navigator program has on litigants even furthered my faith in government," Dega added. "It solidified my belief that people-centered public policy programs truly impact lives in a positive way."

The full PRS Policy Brief 2324-04 "Access to Justice for Self-Represented Litigants through the New Hampshire Circuit Court Navigator Program: A Path Forward" can be found here.