Overview
Throughout the country, people rely on state and local courts to resolve a wide variety of issues, from traffic tickets and divorces to debt cases and shoplifting charges.1 These interactions can affect their lives, their communities, and their opinions of the legal system.
To learn more about how people in the U.S. interact with and view courts, The Pew Charitable Trusts conducted a national poll of 2,016 adults in August and September 2024. The poll, administered by public opinion polling firm SSRS, asked individuals about their general perceptions of the state and local courts in their communities, their interactions with these institutions, and their priorities for improving the courts.2 (All data in this chartbook is from the survey unless otherwise noted. See the methodological appendix for more information.)
Across dozens of questions, several key trends emerged. The poll found that 1 in 3 U.S. adults live in households that had been involved in a court case at some point, meaning that either the survey respondent or someone living with them had had a civil or criminal case before a state or local court, by either initiating or defending a case.
Many respondents said that this court experience had taken a toll on their mental and financial well-being. Households with court experience graded courts as “D” or “F” twice as often as those without. Contrary to what people might expect, defendants or those who lose their cases are not the only court users to hold critical views of the courts—the poll found that plaintiffs and winners often do too. For example, almost 1 in 5 people who won their cases nevertheless emerged with less confidence in the courts than when they started, and nearly 3 in 10 said their financial security was harmed. Still, many saw ways that courts could improve: About half of respondents said that state courts should prioritize their resources for the most serious matters before them, such as those that might break up a family or land someone in prison. And people from all walks of life, both with and without court experience, said that state courts should prioritize their resources for the most serious matters before them, including public safety cases.
The poll revealed some of the challenges courts face in effectively…
LE and the legal system overall to include Legislators & Congress, courts, and all participants from staff to attys have been demonized by their own actions. While these are interesting stats, hardly anyone truly trusts the legal system and are more afraid of it no matter how solid a case may be for some. An outcome can be so obvious that when the opposite comes back or it is minimized, the system is rocked to the core and people don’t believe in it as much as they used to.
From qualified immunity to suspect attys to activist judges to those justices go off on an illogical tangent in their opinions to rewrite the Constitution, the black eye they all wear is of their own doing with a lack of care they are doing it and what it leaves behind for the others who must use the system for whatever crusade they are on. Until these folks are impacted by their decisions or have to play in the legal sandbox like the common folk do, they will never truly understand or care from their perches on high as they look down on society as a whole.
This nation’s legal system truly needs a reset in many areas starting with the thinking behind the legal system and the administering of it to get back to where it was once heading before taking a turn where it is going today. It has long started to look like nations it was once directly opposed to with their legal systems, sadly.