NFP-HFJ Research

The National Family Court Project on Housing & Financial Justice fills the current, nation-wide gap by fostering accuracy and fairness for real property due process through:

• Research

State surveys respectively directed to: judges, lawyers, real estate-related trade group members, advocates, surrogates, and litigants

Existing and new datasets (nationally representative sampling)

• Continuing education curriculum (adaptation), respectively directed to: judges, lawyers, mediators, real estate-related professionals, and surrogates as well as community outreach for litigants
• Systemic change via non-legislative strategies promoting multidisciplinary consensus (national, regional, state, local) among state judiciary and industry stakeholders (legal, financial, and real estate)

Anticipated contributions include:

• Evaluating uninformed housing-related financial decision making – and other “financial misadventures” – by divorcing homeowners, surrogates, elder homeowners, and their extended families, buttressing fiscal preventative measures and supplementing growing elder financial abuse initiatives
• Expanding established financial literacy literature to including housing-related measures (impacting divorce and elder financial outcomes beyond shelter)
• Integrating housing-related financial literacy enhancement with state self-represented litigants policymaking and civil justice initiatives (nationwide), especially for Divorce, Guardianship, Conservatorship, and Elder Cases