Civil Justice and the Poor: Issues for Sociological Research

In this report on civil justice and the poor we seek to examine issues relevant to the sociology of law. We have studied law and poverty because this area seems to us most likely to call into question conventional assumptions about the structure, conditions and consequences of legal administration. Here, we believe, the actual operation of the legal system is most likely to deviate from received notions; and at this stage of inquiry gross deviations may be most useful in stimulating research issues and perspectives. We have emphasized the civil instead of the criminal side because sociologists have given it so little attention.