This is an ongoing competition open to select participants only.
2025 Access to Justice Prize
Closing the Rural Justice Gap
Submission period:
Phase 1 closed / Phase 2 opens on 10/01/25 04:00 PM UTCTotal cash prizes:
$75,000The Access to Justice Prize Competition
The Office for Access to Justice is pleased to announce the Access to Justice Prize, a prize competition to advance the innovative solutions that are urgently needed to address the widespread justice gap and increase access to justice for all. The Access to Justice Prize seeks to support leaders on the front lines of the access to justice crisis to develop these strategic solutions. Your innovative ideas are likely to be the most effective because of your visibility into specific barriers and gaps, your connection to impacted communities, and your understanding of available resources and tools.
In line with this purpose, the Access to Justice Prize invites community-based and non-profit organizations; academic institutions; and local, state, tribal and territorial governments—including courts, public defender offices, and prosecutorial agencies—to submit proposals for an innovative idea to expand access to justice. The Access to Justice Prize competition has a one-year prize cycle, from January to December, with two judging rounds. At the first round, a number of finalists will be selected and awarded a finalist prize.The finalists will further develop their submission during a six-month Refinement Phase and will then compete in a final round judging competition—the Access to Justice Prize Showcase—for the grand prize.
Through the Access to Justice Prize, the Office for Access to Justice aims to advance general public awareness about access to justice gaps; prompt new and innovative solutions that increase access to justice; equip and support the development of such solutions; and promote the replication and expansion of such solutions.
Access to Justice Prize Competition 2025: Closing the Rural Justice Gap
In 2025, the Access to Justice Prize will focus on closing the justice gap across rural America.
Access to justice barriers are often exacerbated for rural Americans, and the unique and complex hurdles for people living in rural areas—long travel times, limited internet access, lack of attorneys, and more—are too often overlooked. When compared with their urban counterparts, rural Americans are more likely to have household incomes below the federal poverty line and they are more likely to face civil legal problems. In 2022, the Legal Services Corporation found that 77% of rural low-income households experienced at least one civil legal problem in the previous year, and 40% experienced at least five. Yet these households are even less likely to find the assistance needed to navigate these issues: Rural low-income Americans do not receive any or enough legal help for 94% of the substantial civil legal problems they encountered.
Similar challenges are found in the criminal justice systems in rural areas. Rural jurisdictions frequently rely on part-time judges and prosecutors as well as contract indigent defense counsel, which can result in ethical conflicts and diminished access to the Sixth Amendment right to counsel. Small budgets and limited access to forensic and social services mean that criminal practitioners in rural areas may lack paralegal, investigative, and expert support that is routinely provided in urban jurisdictions. Studies demonstrate that recruitment and retention challenges are increasing for criminal justice careers in rural areas, including for prosecutors, public defenders and law enforcement.
Problems facing rural courts are increasing and are complex, including rapidly rising caseloads, delay, uneven workloads among judges, and lack of fiscal resources. Virtual hearings have expanded access in many areas, but do not always account for unique barriers in rural jurisdictions, including lack of necessary hardware, costs to litigants, or unreliable internet or phone service.
Solutions to the rural access to justice crisis must begin with rural communities themselves. Those who live and work in rural areas, and organizations that serve them, are best situated to recognize both the needs and the strengths of their local community, and to develop creative and impactful approaches to harness existing resources and respond to challenges effectively.
Types of Innovative Ideas that May be Submitted
For 2025, the Access to Justice Prize invites applicants to submit an innovative idea to expand access to justice within a rural jurisdiction and/or community. An innovative idea that would “expand access to justice” means an idea that expands access, accelerates innovation, or safeguards the integrity of civil or criminal legal systems. This could include ideas that would seek to improve legal systems, processes, interactions or outcomes, or to better solve justice problems within rural areas or for rural communities. Some examples include:
- Expanding access to legal representation, legal assistance, or legal information
- Utilizing alternatives to counsel or other innovative legal assistance models
- Breaking down barriers to accessing legal systems, including barriers disproportionately faced by rural Americans, like lack of proximity to a courthouse, ability to travel or access to broadband
- Simplifying legal processes, systems, forms, or language
- Reducing disparities among those navigating, or impacted by, legal systems
- Reducing the need for interaction with civil and criminal legal systems or developing efficient alternatives to justice processes
- Reducing any harmful effects of legal systems
- Accessing and utilizing technology to expedite and promote efficiency within courts and legal systems
- Advancing cost-saving strategies
- Expanding language access, utilizing written, spoken, and sign languages, as well as auxiliary communication aids and services
- Expanding access for people with disabilities
- Expanding access for specific rural populations, such as Tribal communities, low-income communities, communities of color, or other historically underserved communities
- Identifying and establishing innovative cross-sector, cross-agency, or otherwise unique partnerships to expand access to legal systems
- Reducing financial or economic barriers to accessing legal systems or economic conditions imposed on those impacted by legal systems
- Improving legal or other supports for victims and/or survivors
- Expanding access to legal systems by taking court/legal processes or assistance to communities, outside of the courtroom
- Expanding access to basic and collateral needs for those in rural communities who interact with legal systems, including, for example, housing, food, employment, etc.
- Promoting efficiency of systems or processes through customer or user experience strategies
About the Office for Access to Justice
The Office for Access to Justice works to break down barriers to the founding principle of the Department of Justice: equal justice under law. Our mission is to ensure access to the promises and protections of our civil and criminal legal systems for all communities. We believe justice belongs to everyone. Our vision is a world in which fair and efficient legal systems deliver just processes and outcomes, promote confidence in the justice system, secure public safety, and meet the critical legal needs of the American people.
Total cash prizes
Prize description
Prize for Finalists: Up to 5 applicants will be selected as finalists to participate in the Refinement Phase and to compete for the Grand Prize. Each finalist will receive $5,000. Up to $25,000 total will be awarded during this phase of the competition.
Prize for Grand Prize Winner: A Grand Prize Winner will receive $50,000.
Access to Justice Prize award recipients will be paid by electronic funds transfer and may be subject to Federal income taxes. DOJ will comply with the Internal Revenue Service withholding and reporting requirements, where applicable.
Eligibility requirements
This Competition is open only to:
- 501(c)(3) non-profit entities;
- Institutions of higher learning or institutions of higher education;
- Units of local, state, tribal and territorial government, including courts, public defender offices, prosecutorial agencies, and law enforcement entities.
To be eligible to win a prize under this Challenge, an applicant must:
- If a private entity, be incorporated in and maintain a primary place of business in the United States;
- Not be a federal entity or federal employee acting within the scope of their employment;
- Not be an employee of the Department of Justice (DOJ) acting in their personal capacity or official capacity;
- Not be an individual or organization that is currently suspended or debarred by the federal government;
- Not be any party involved with the design, production, execution, judging, or distribution of the Challenge or the immediate family of such a party.
Rules
1. Applicants must demonstrate that their idea has the potential to impact rural communities. Applicants are encouraged to adopt a non-exclusive definition of “rural” in determining applicability of this rule but may find the following definitions helpful:
- One or more census tracts not designated as urban by the U.S. Census Bureau;
- Any county not designated as metropolitan by the Office of Management and Budget; or
- One or more census tracts with Rural Urban Commuting Area codes 4-10, as designated by USDA’s Economic Research Service.
2. Applicants agree to, if selected as Finalists, participate in the public Access to Justice Prize Showcase event in December 2025 to present their ideas to the panel of judges selecting the Grand Prize winner. Cost assistance may be available if travel is required for participation.
3. Applicants must comply with all submission requirements listed in the “How to Enter” section of this Challenge announcement.
Terms and conditions
- Each applicant agrees to follow all applicable federal, state, and local laws, regulations, and policies.
- Each applicant participating in this Challenge must comply with all rules, terms, conditions in this announcement, and participation in this Challenge constitutes each such applicant’s full and unconditional agreement to abide by these rules. Winning is contingent upon fulfilling all requirements herein.
- An applicant may not use Federal funds from a grant award, cooperative agreement, or contract to develop their Challenge submissions or to fund efforts in support of their Challenge submissions.
- Federal contractors may not use federal funds from a contract to develop their Challenge submissions or to fund efforts in support of their Challenge submissions.
- Based on the subject matter of the Challenge, the type of work that it will possibly require, as well as an analysis of the likelihood of any claims for death, bodily injury, property damage, or loss potentially resulting from Challenge participation, applicants participating in the Challenge are not required to obtain liability insurance or demonstrate financial responsibility in order to participate in this Challenge.
- By participating in this Challenge, all applicants agree to assume, and thereby have assumed, any and all risks of injury or loss in connection with or in any way arising from participation in this competition and/or development of any submission. Upon registration, except in the case of willful misconduct, all applicants agree to and thereby do waive and release any and all claims or causes of action against the federal government and its officers, employees, and agents for any and all injury and damage of any nature whatsoever (whether existing or thereafter arising; whether direct, indirect, or consequential; and whether foreseeable or not) arising from their participation in the contest, whether the claim or cause of action arises under contract or tort.
- By participating in this Challenge, each applicant agrees to indemnify the federal government against third party claims for damages arising from or related to Challenge activities.
- By participating in this Challenge, applicants warrant that they have the right and authority to enter their submission on their own behalf or on behalf of the persons and entities specified within the submission, and that the submission is the applicant’s own original work, or is submitted by permission with full and proper credit given within the entry; and does not knowingly violate any copyright or any other rights of any third party of which the applicant is aware.
- By participating in this Challenge, each applicant grants to the DOJ an irrevocable, paid-up, royalty-free nonexclusive worldwide license to reproduce, publish, post, link to, share, and display publicly the submission on the web or elsewhere, and a nonexclusive, nontransferable, irrevocable, paid-up license to practice, or have practiced for or on its behalf, the solution throughout the world. Each applicant will retain all other intellectual property rights in their submissions, as applicable. To participate in the Challenge, each applicant must warrant that there are no legal obstacles to providing the above-referenced nonexclusive licenses of the applicant’s rights to the federal government. To receive an award, applicant will not be required to transfer their intellectual property rights to DOJ, but applicant must grant to the federal government the nonexclusive licenses recited herein.
- Applicants must be able to receive payments that are legally made from the U.S. government in U.S. dollars.
- As a condition for winning a cash prize in this Challenge, each applicant that has been selected for an award must complete and submit all requested award verification and payment documents to ATJ within 15 business days of formal notification. Failure to return all required verification documents by the date specified in the notification may be a basis for disqualification of a cash prize winning submission.
- ATJ reserves the authority to disqualify any contestant it believes to be tampering with the entry process or the operation of the Challenge or to be acting in violation of any applicable rule or condition.
- ATJ shall have sole and absolute discretion: (i) to select judges, finalist judging panel, and Approving Official; (ii) to allocate duties among the judges and the finalist judging panel; (iii) to design the methodology used by the judges to render their decisions; and (iv) to select the finalist(s) and Grand Prize Winner of the prize competition.
- ATJ reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to (a) cancel, suspend, and/or modify this prize competition, or any part of it, for any reason at any time, and/or (b) not award any prizes.
All submissions will be screened for eligibility and compliance with the rules of the Challenge. Only fully complete submissions confirmed to meet all eligibility requirements will move forward for review and judging.
Judging will be divided into two rounds – Finalist Selection and Grand Prize Selection. All eligible submissions will be reviewed and judged according to the criteria outlined below, which will result in the selection of up to five finalists. Federal government staff with subject matter expertise will serve as judges for the Finalist Selection round. These finalists will then enter the Refinement Phase where they will prepare to compete for the Grand Prize (see below).
Phase I: Finalist Selection Judging
Eligible submissions will be reviewed individually by a panel of federal staff with subject matter expertise. Each eligible submission will be reviewed individually by a minimum of three reviewers.
Submissions are eligible to receive a maximum score of 100. All criteria are scored 1-10, with 1 being the lowest score and 10 being the highest score on each element. Scores are weighted equally at 25% for each element and then aggregated to create a final score out of 100. Judging criteria for the finalist selection phase of the challenge are as follows:
- Innovation: Does the submission reflect a creative, new proposed idea for a solution to pressing barriers to equal access to justice that has not been done within the applicant’s jurisdiction, even if it has been done in other jurisdictions?
- Implementation, Feasibility, and Sustainability: Does the submission include an implementation plan? Does the submission reflect data and/or analysis of potential barriers and strategic efforts to mitigate those barriers? Does the submission address how the solution will be sustained?
- Clear Goal and Measures for Success: Does the submission include a clear goal or outcome sought to expand access to justice for rural communities? Would the proposed impact be significant and long-term? Does the submission establish methods to determine impact or success both in the short-term and long-term? How will implementation processes and outcomes be documented?
- Engagement: Does the submission reflect engagement with a broad range of stakeholders, including communities or organizations that represent people likely to be impacted by the proposal, or demonstrate a plan to ensure such engagement?
Phase II: Grand Prize
During the Refinement Phase, finalists will work toward the refinement and development of their proposed innovation or idea. Finalists may use the first-round prize award funds to further develop their idea/innovation, refine their idea/innovation, and make final changes in preparation for the final pitch. At the end of the six-month Refinement Phase Finalists will submit a Finalist Grand Prize Submission, which is a document that summarizes their work and outcomes achieved during the Refinement Phase, and which will be considered as part of the judging during the Grand Prize phase.
For the Grand Prize Selection, the Office for Access to Justice will establish a committee of experts in various access to justice issue areas to serve as judges for the final Grand Prize phase and to select the final Grand Prize Winner. At the Grand Prize Selection Phase, Finalists are eligible to receive a maximum score of 100. All criteria are scored 1-10, with 1 being the lowest score and 10 being the highest score on each element. Scores are weighted equally at 20% for each element and then aggregated to create a final score out of 100. Judging for the Grand Prize will be based on the finalist’s Finalist Grand Prize Submission which summarizes their work and outcomes achieved during the Refinement Phase, and pitches made by finalists at the Access to Justice Prize Showcase which will likely be held in Washington, DC, considering the following criteria:
- Impact: The potential of the idea, now further refined, to demonstrably expand access to justice in rural areas.
- Sustainability: The potential of the idea, now further refined, to have long-term sustainability.
- Support: The support obtained by the applicant for the idea and its implementation, including stakeholder, community, local governmental or other support.
- Substantial Progress Toward Clear Goal and Measures for Success: Whether the applicant has made substantial progress, or demonstrates a clear plan for future progress, toward the accomplishment of the projected clear goal and measures established to demonstrate impact or success (as originally set forth in the applicant’s submission).
- Participation: Efforts to pursue implementation taken during the Refinement Phase, outcomes and work conducted, and creative revisions to the implementation plan made, if needed, to address any barriers faced.
Submissions for the Access to Justice Prize will be accepted through Challenge.gov beginning on Tuesday, January 7, 2025, at 12:00 p.m. Eastern.
Interested applicants are encouraged to create a Challenge.Gov Account via Login.gov before the submission period opens and “Follow the Challenge.”
Submission Requirements
- Applicants are asked to develop a proposal no longer than 10 pages in length, with no minimum page length requirement. The proposal format must be a PDF with standard 8½ x 11-inch pages with one-inch margins, font no smaller than 12-point Times New Roman or Aptos, except for footnotes, which may be in 10-point font, and include page numbers. For applicants that require alternate submission options, contact the Challenge Manager via the “Contact” tab.
- Applicants may also upload an optional PDF of a visual representation of their solution. This may include but is not limited to illustrations, schematics, images, graphs, diagrams, maps, flow charts, organizational charts, or other visuals to help reviewers to better understand your proposed approach. The PDF should not exceed 10MB and a total of three pages and should not contain extensive text explanations or be used to circumvent word counts in this submission form. Some brief labels or basic text descriptions are permitted. Pages beyond the three-page limit, as well as unrelated content, will render the submission ineligible. This visual representation is not required.
- Applicants must not use DOJ or other government logos or official seals in the submissions and must not otherwise give an appearance of Federal government endorsement.
The proposal must include the following information:
- Executive Summary and Background: a clear summary of the submission idea and any relevant background, which may include quantitative or qualitative information, research or anecdotal information describing the problem intended to be addressed by the proposed submission idea;
- Rural Eligibility: a description of how the submission will advance access to justice for rural communities, as defined in the rules section;.
- Innovation: a description of how the submission reflects a creative, new proposed idea for a solution to pressing barriers to equal access to justice that has not been done within the applicant’s jurisdiction, even if it has been done in other jurisdictions;
- Implementation, Feasibility and Sustainability: a description of the submission’s proposed implementation plan, a timeline for implementation that includes metrics for proposed accomplishments on or by the date of the Access to Justice Prize Showcase and metrics for future proposed accomplishments prior to and after the Challenge is completed, if applicable, an analysis of potential implementation barriers and strategic efforts to mitigate those barriers, and a description of how the innovation will be sustained;
- Clear Goal and Measures for Success: a clear goal or outcome for the new proposed idea that will aim to expand access to justice, a description of how the proposed impact may be significant and long-term, and any methods to determine impact or success of the idea both in the short-term and long-term; and
- Engagement: a description of engagement conducted in the development of the idea, and whether such engagement has included a broad range of stakeholders, including communities or organizations that represent communities that are likely to be impacted by the proposal, or clear plan to ensure such engagement moving forward..
How to Apply
On or after the application submission period opens on Wednesday, December 18, 2024, at 12:00 p.m. Eastern, applicants should:
Submission details:
- Create a Challenge.Gov Account via Login.gov.
- Log in to Challenge.Gov via Login.gov.
- Click the orange Apply for this Challenge button in the overview section at the top of the Challenge page.
- Enter the Title for your Submission.
- Enter a Brief Description for your Submission (500 Characters or less)
- Enter your submission details in the Long Description field.
To load a file to the submission:
- Drag your file or click the "Choose from folder" link to load a file from your computer (Allowed file types: .pdf, .txt, .csv, .jpg, .png or .tiff)
- Rename your file (required)
- Click the blue "Attach File" button to attach your file to the submission.
- To add additional files, repeat steps 1-3.
To complete your submission:
- Check the box for Acknowledgement of Rules, Terms & Conditions to confirm you have read all content on the Rules tab for this Challenge.
- Click the Review and Submit button at the bottom of the page.
- Click the Submit button to enter.
Submissions are due by March 31, 2025 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern.
Finalists will be required to submit a document summarizing their outcomes and work completed toward implementation during the refinement phase, in advance of their participation in the final Pitch Day event.
Please see the FAQ document below.
