Under the Obama administration, the Department of Justice began proactively addressing the justice gap, the gap between legal needs and services available. It was anticipated that Attorney General Jeff Sessions would find the cause less compelling than did Attorneys General Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch, but that doesn’t make the news that Sessions has killed the DOJ’s access to justice program any more palatable. As Jane Austen observed, “the expectation of an unpleasant event, however certain” and certainty are very different things.

The crisis in access to justice in the United States is enormous—and growing.

In more than three-fourths of all civil trial cases in the United States, at least one litigant does not have a lawyer. Figures are even starker when it comes to family law, domestic violence, housing, and small-claims matters—those involving disputes over amounts up to $25,000, depending on the state. At least one party lacks representation in 70 to 98 percent of these cases. And these are just the Americans who make it to court. Without access to legal advice, many are unaware of their legal rights and potential claims. Past estimates and more recent state-by-state studies suggest that about 80 percent of the civil legal needs of those living in poverty go unmet as well as 40 to 60 percent of the needs of middle-income Americans.

Of course, some populations are more deeply affected than others.