Neutralizing Access to Justice: Criminal Defendants' Access to Justice in a Net Neutrality Information World

Abstract

Ten years ago, the phrases “net neutrality” and “access to justice” were not a part of the public vocabulary – not individually and certainly not in the same sentence. In addition, few people who were talking about these issues were addressing their intersection as it relates to the millions of Americans who are being under-served in the criminal justice system. Because net neutrality issues are almost universally discussed in terms of large-scale commercial sites, very few people are interested in how the demise of net neutrality threatens to impact access to information for those represented by counsel (or worse, themselves) in criminal proceedings in the United States. This article details how the demise of net neutrality will harm the millions of Americans who are currently a part of the criminal justice system, and what can be done to ensure that their access to justice remains intact.