Cohort 2025
EXPO of Wisconsin
Using Tech to Address Civil Legal Matters That Can Result in Criminal Charges
Dane County, WI
Unresolved legal issues like evictions, consumer debt judgements, child support orders, financial obligations from prior criminal charges, and driver’s license suspensions can have compounding negative effects, such as job loss, housing instability, and financial hardships. Even noncriminal legal issues can spiral into criminal issues and result in jail and prison sentences. The impact of unresolved legal issues is often disproportionately felt by communities of color because of housing discrimination, predatory lending, and discriminatory traffic enforcement in Black and Brown neighborhoods. Tools that help people navigate unresolved legal cases help prevent minor infractions from snowballing into life-altering consequences. In Wisconsin, one such tool is the Legal Tune Up tool, a free web-based, single-entry point for resolving economically harmful legal issues created by Legal Interventions for Transforming Wisconsin (LIFT). The tool aggregates data from multiple publicly available state databases to empower users to resolve legal issues independently.
With Catalyst grant funding, EXPO of Wisconsin, in partnership with LIFT, aims to prevent compounding effects of unresolved legal issues and advance racial equity in civil legal barriers and the front end of Wisconsin’s criminal legal system by improving the delivery of the Legal Tune Up tool and analyzing data from the tool to inform advocacy. EXPO of Wisconsin will collaborate with LIFT to launch a strategic outreach campaign informing community members about the tool, analyze anonymized Legal Tune Up data to identify patterns in civil legal barriers, and provide one-on-one support and mobile legal clinics to ensure people can navigate the process of resolving their legal issues. The initiative’s final products will include reports and policy briefs on evidence-based recommendations for reforming civil legal processes to reduce racial disparities and prevent unnecessary system involvement, and community forums will be held to present findings and advocate for policy changes.
