Webinar: Examining Tenant Right to Counsel Policy

Speakers: Emily Benfer, George Washington University Law School; Jamila Michener, Cornell University Brooks School of Public Policy

At this webinar hosted by the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan (ICPSR), speakers will discuss the initial findings of their study, “A Descriptive Analysis of Tenant Right to Counsel Law and Praxis 2017-2024.”

This study and accompanying dataset, provides the first comprehensive description of state and local tenant Right to Counsel policies around the country. From July 2017 through June 2024, five states, 17 cities, and one county passed legislation to formally create a right to legal counsel in eviction proceedings. These policies contain heterogeneous provisions, including their intended purposes, design and administration requirements, eligibility criteria, and when the right is triggered in the eviction process. Investigators applied longitudinal policy surveillance, legal mapping, and legal analysis techniques to describe state and local tenant right to counsel laws in 23 jurisdictions. The resulting study includes the requirements and characteristics of tenant right to counsel law, such as policy justification, dates of significance (e.g., passage, effect, implementation), program administration, eligibility criteria, court processes, and community engagement requirements, among other variables. In addition, speakers will describe the initial results of additional study aims, including tenant experiences of right to counsel in the eviction system.

Register in advance for this webinar: 
https://myumi.ch/W6gk9

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

Study: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10511482.2025.2467136
Dataset: https://www.icpsr.umich.edu/web/ICPSR/studies/39350