Q1 2026 | January-March 2026

Top takeaways

• Implementation dominated Q1. The strongest materials this quarter were guides, pilots, and applied analyses showing how courts can improve fairness through specific routines, communications, and system-design choices.
• Participation barriers were a major theme. Missed appearances, confusing paperwork, and inaccessible digital systems are central fairness issues because they determine whether people can meaningfully take part in their cases.
• Courts are getting more explicit about measuring user experience. The quarter’s most significant report paired procedural-justice training with direct litigant feedback, while other resources pushed courts to communicate more clearly about AI and improve digital accessibility.

Featured resource

Judicial and Litigant Experiences: The Fairness Challenge Pilot National Report (LaGratta Consulting, March 2026) is the standout publication of the quarter. The report describes a pilot across four jurisdictions spanning six counties in four states, with participating judicial officers engaging in six months of monthly remote training, peer observation, and litigant-feedback collection aimed at improving observable fairness practices. By the pilot’s midpoint, participating judges had increased their use of six of seven studied practices, and the project paired those implementation measures with direct litigant-experience data.

What makes the report especially valuable is that it does not stop at aspiration. It reports feedback from nearly 1,700 litigants and shows high topline results across the pilot sites, with averages hovering around 90% for general fairness, understanding, and voice. For a field that often discusses fairness in broad terms, this report offers something more useful: a model for treating procedural justice as a set of concrete, measurable practices that can be taught, observed, and refined.

New practical tools and guidance

Putting consumer debt reforms into practice

NCSC, Feb. 6, 2026. This resource translates reform principles into operational choices on filing requirements, default review, service, and scheduling, explicitly framing those changes as ways to improve access and procedural fairness in debt cases.

How to talk to your court users about AI

TRI/NCSC AI Policy Consortium, Mar. 12, 2026. Aimed at clerks, librarians, and self-help staff, this resource recommends that courts educate users about AI’s limits and risks, explain local rules and policies, and direct people to trusted resources.

What courts need to know about the DOJ digital accessibility rule & compliance deadline

NCSC, Mar. 26, 2026. The item explains accessibility requirements for state and local governments, including courts, and reinforces that inaccessible forms, notices, and digital services undermine access before anyone reaches the courtroom.

New research findings

Investments in Text Reminders Bring State Courts Big Gains

Pew Charitable Trusts, Jan. 15, 2026. This article synthesizes evidence on reminder systems, emphasizing automatic enrollment, plain-language wording, and timing recommendations.

People With Disabilities Are More Likely Than Those Without to Have Court Experience

Pew Charitable Trusts, Jan. 20, 2026. This item reports that adults with disabilities are more likely to live in households with a court case and expressed lower confidence in fair treatment and more skepticism about courts’ use of technology.

How Paperwork Prevents Consumers From Participating in Lawsuits

Pew Charitable Trusts, Mar. 16, 2026. This piece shows how procedural-paperwork rules can suppress meaningful participation in consumer-debt cases and is especially useful when read together with NCSC’s consumer-debt implementation guidance.

Also of note this quarter

Free, to be fair: Courts celebrating America @ 250

NCSC, Feb. 3, 2026. A handbook for courts to engage their communities during the nation’s 250th anniversary, with messaging frameworks emphasizing transparency, fairness, and public trust.

What Courts Can Learn From Package Delivery Companies

Pew Charitable Trusts, Feb. 4, 2026. This article highlights emerging use of GPS verification, time-stamped photographs, and better service documentation as ways to reduce disputes about notice and improve participation.

Earlier publications worth noting

Missing In Actions: How low appearance rates impact courts

NCSC, report dated December 2025; feature page posted January 2026. This report examines how low appearance rates strain court resources, particularly in traffic and consumer-debt cases.

Beyond civics education: A health & wellness guide for public trust

CCJ/COSCA Public Engagement, Trust, and Confidence Committee via NCSC, August 2024. This guide offers courts a four-part framework for rebuilding public trust through community engagement, transparency, and proactive communication.

Suggested actions

• Start a peer observation for fairness at your court. Appendix A of the Fairness Challenge Pilot National Report includes a peer-observation instrument and note-taking sheet used by judicial officers across four states in the pilot.
• Review NCSC’s consumer-debt reform toolkits against your court’s current practices. Even courts in jurisdictions that have not enacted formal debt-collection reforms can use the toolkits as a benchmark for identifying gaps in their own processes.