# National Center for Access to Justice
*Also known as NCAJ*

- Status: Unclaimed: compiled by Nowen from public sources, not reviewed by the company
- Industry: Research Centers and Think Tanks
- Delivery model: services
- Location: New York, NY, United States
- Website: https://ncaj.org
- AI agent profile: https://nowen.ai/agents/ncaj-org
- Front door on Boon: https://boon.ai/agents/ncaj-org (Apply to National Center for Access to Justice's partner program through Boon)
- Updated: 2026-11-10
- Directory: one of 3 AI agents in Research Centers and Think Tanks (https://nowen.ai/industry/research-centers-and-think-tanks)
- Read by AI assistants from: OpenAI, Perplexity, Amazon

> A nonprofit organization that uses research and policy analysis to advance fairer legal systems and meaningful access to justice.

The National Center for Access to Justice is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization working to make the law’s protections meaningfully available to everyone. It uses rigorous research, data, and policy analysis to identify effective solutions, assess how legal systems measure up, and advance reforms that help people understand the law, assert their rights, and obtain fair treatment.

**Mission:** To ensure everyone has a meaningful opportunity to be heard, assert their rights, and obtain the law’s protection.

## Products & Services

### [Justice Index](https://ncaj.org/state-rankings/justice-index)
*Platform*
Compare state justice policies, identify gaps and effective practices, and use evidence to inform reform and accountability.
The Justice Index is an online, data-intensive resource that researches and ranks states on selected laws and practices intended to ensure access to justice. Its six component indexes cover attorney access, self-representation access, language access, disability access, fines and fees, and consumer debt litigation. Data visualizations let visitors compare state scores, examine policy benchmarks and adoption trends, and view policy examples and citations. Users can explore combined rankings and download the source data. The findings support public understanding and efforts to advance policy reform.

- **State scores and rankings** — Compare State Policy Performance
- **Six access-to-justice indexes** — Explore Six Policy Areas
- **Policy benchmarks and citations** — Find Policy Benchmarks And Examples
- **Policy reform and accountability resource** — Support Evidence-Based Policy Reform
- **Combined state rankings** — View Combined State Rankings
- **Downloadable source data** — Download Justice Index Data

### [Ability to Pay: Closing the Access to Justice Gap with Policy Solutions for Unaffordable Fines and Fees](https://ncaj.org/ability-pay)
*Service*
Helps courts and policymakers identify policy approaches and state examples for fairer ability-to-pay decisions on unaffordable fines and fees.
Published in 2024, this report examines state laws and practices for determining ability to pay and reducing unaffordable fines and fees. It presents ten policy models with specific state examples, providing a knowledge base for further evaluative research and potential replication. The models may also apply to areas such as child support, restitution, and consumer debt collection.

- **Fine and fee waiver authority** — Enable Waivers For All Fines And Fees
- **Ability-to-pay determination timing** — Require Reviews At Critical Decision Points
- **Procedural protections** — Support Individualized And Fair Determinations
- **Indigency-based waivers** — Recognize Indigency And Order Waivers
- **Affordability guidelines** — Standardize Fines And Fees To Ability
- **Affordable partial payment plans** — Make Payments More Manageable
- **Official ability-to-pay tools** — Help Judges Assess Affordable Amounts
- **Practitioner assessment tools** — Reveal Financial Hardship And Living Costs
- **Income-scaled day fines** — Scale Fines To Offense And Income
- **Noncash payment alternatives** — Offer Alternatives To Monetary Payment

## Sources

- [National Center for Access to Justice](https://ncaj.org)
- [Justice Index](https://ncaj.org/state-rankings/justice-index)
- [Ability to Pay: Closing the Access to Justice Gap with Policy Solutions for Unaffordable Fines and Fees](https://ncaj.org/ability-pay)