Research Conducted by Assistant Professor and American Bar Foundation Access to Justice Scholar Published by The Debt Collection Lab
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Assistant Professor of Law and 2023-24 American Bar Foundation Access to Justice Scholar Claire Johnson Raba is an affiliated scholar with the Debt Collection Lab, a project of the Sociology Department at Princeton University. Professor Johnson Raba recently published two reports on the newly launched Research section on the Debt Collection Lab website.
Debt Collection Lab researchers are an interdisciplinary team of scholars studying debt, debt collection, and courts. Their work explores court processes and evaluates state reforms to help level the legal playing field for unrepresented consumer borrowers and tells the stories of individuals and communities impacted by consumer debt.
Below, Professor Johnson Raba explores “The Unequal Burden of Debt Claims: Disparate Impact in California Debt Collection Cases,” and “One-Sided Litigation: Lessons from Civil Docket Data in California Debt Collection Lawsuits” as her studies reveal that debt cases are an increasing burden on consumers and the civil court system. The papers are the first in a body of work out of a big data research project on court data for 2.2 million California debt collection lawsuits.
Analysis found fewer than 1 in 10 Californians participate in the legal process in these cases, only 1 in 20 have an attorney, and cases usually end in a win for the debt collector. Using predictive methodology, the data show that collection cases are disproportionately filed against non-white borrowers and in neighborhoods populated predominantly by people of color. This research shines a light on often-overlooked proceedings in state court and is intended to spur conversations about access to justice with scholars, courts, and legal services providers to improve outcomes for unrepresented consumer borrowers.
Read the full reports below.
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About Professor Claire Johnson Raba Heading link
Claire Johnson Raba is a 2023-24 American Bar Foundation / JPB Foundation Access to Justice Scholar. Professor Johnson Raba’s scholarship focuses on access to civil justice and the impact of the civil legal system on low-income borrowers and their communities. At the intersection of big data, emerging legal technologies, consumer protection, and racial and social justice, her research is directed at substantively improving the experiences of self-represented litigants in state court. Prior to joining academia, Professor Johnson Raba was a legal aid civil litigator representing low-income consumers in state, federal, and bankruptcy court.
Professor Johnson Raba has taught as a Clinical Teaching Fellow at the University of California, Irvine School of Law Consumer Law Clinic and an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco (formerly UC Hastings). She holds a B.A. cum laude in political science from California State University East Bay, a J.D. with a public interest concentration from the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco and was an Equal Justice Works fellow sponsored by Arnold & Porter LLP.
Professor Johnson Raba is an affiliated researcher with the University of California, Irvine School of Law and a co-Principal Investigator with the Debt Collection Lab, a project of Princeton University. She is the 2023-25 chair of the Equal Justice Works Alumni Advisory Council and serves on the Legal Services Corporation Civil Court Data Initiative Advisory Working Group.
Professor Johnson Raba teaches Civil Procedure, Consumer Law, and courses on using legal technology to solve access to justice problems.