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I'm going to start by telling you a story about Danielle.
我先给大家讲一个关于丹妮尔的故事。
When she was a senior in college, Danielle's dad passed away, which left her mom with no way to support herself.
丹妮尔在上大四的时候父亲去世了，留下母亲艰难维持生计。
So Danielle had to drop out of college and pick up three jobs as a barista, a bartender and a car washer.
所以她不得不从大学辍学并兼做了三份工作：咖啡师、调酒师和洗车工。
Altogether, the three jobs paid Danielle 23,000 dollars per year, which wasn't a whole lot, but it allowed her to feed her mom and keep a roof over their head. And for Danielle, that was enough.
丹妮尔每年能从这三份工作中拿到23,000美元的收入，虽然不是很多，但足以让她养活母亲并有了住的地方，对丹妮尔来说这已经足够了。
But early one morning when Danielle was driving home from one of her jobs, a deer ran in front of her car.
然而有一天清晨，当丹妮尔结束工作开车回家时，一只鹿冲到了她的车前。
She swerved off the road and crashed into a barn.
她把车转到公路侧边，结果撞上了一个谷仓。
And Danielle doesn't remember exactly what happened next, but when she woke up in a hospital a few hours later, a doctor told her that she had damaged her brain stem and C1 vertebrae.
丹妮尔不记得之后发生了什么，当她几个小时后在医院醒来时，医生告诉她她的脑干和C1椎骨受损。
Now, the good news is that Danielle was going to leave the hospital alive.
好消息是她没有生命危险，可以随即离开医院。
But the bad news is that Danielle had 55,000 dollars in medical bills.
坏消息是她需要支付55,000美元的医疗费用。
Now, Danielle tried so hard for the next two years to try and pay back that debt, but it was impossible.
接下来的两年里丹妮尔一直努力偿还债务，但两年的时间是不可能还清的。
It was impossible for Danielle to pay back 55,000 dollars in medical bills, earning just 23,000 dollars per year.
对于每年的收入只有23,000美元的丹妮尔来说怎么偿还55,000美元的医疗费用？
She felt trapped. One freak accident put Danielle on the verge of homelessness, hunger, poverty.
她感觉自己陷入了困境，这次突发事故让她处在了无家可归、饥饿和贫困的边缘。
And when you're in Danielle's shoes, bankruptcy is a lifeline.
当你处在丹妮尔的境地时，“破产”是一条出路。
It's a powerful legal tool that allows you to relieve your debt and re-enter the economy.
“破产”是一个强大的法律工具，可以让你减轻债务，经济好转。
Medical emergency, a job loss, a divorce. These are financial shocks that could happen to any of us.
医疗紧急情况、失业、离婚，这些事情带来的财务冲击有可能发生在任何人身上。
And when you're living paycheck to paycheck and don't have a whole lot of savings, like so many Americans, a financial shock can ruin your life.
而当你像很多美国人一样只靠工资吃饭、没什么存款时，财务危机会毁掉你的生活。
Bankruptcy gives you a second chance.
但是，“破产”能给你第二次机会。
But when Danielle went to go find a bankruptcy lawyer, she, like so many others filing for bankruptcy, learned that it was going to cost her 1,500 dollars.
然而，当丹妮尔去找破产律师时，她和很多其他申请破产的人一样需要花费1500美元的申请费。
She didn't have that kind of money. I mean, what a cruel irony.
她连这些钱都没有，这真的是一个残酷的讽刺。
In America, it costs you 1,500 dollars to tell the court that you have no money.
在美国，你要花1500美元来告诉法庭你没有钱。
When you walk into a court, everyone from the judge to the clerk to the forms themselves will tell you to go find a lawyer, no matter how little money you have.
当你走进法庭时，从法官到书记员到填表格，每个人都会让你去找一个律师，不管你有多穷。
One of the great civil rights injustices in America is that we don't have equal rights under the law.
美国民权最大的不公之一就是我们在法律上没有平等的权利。
What we have is equal rights if you can afford a lawyer.
如果你能请得起律师，那么我们所拥有的才是平等的权利，
Whether you're evicted from your home in an abusive relationship or need access to bankruptcy, you have no right to a free lawyer in most civil cases.
无论你是在一段虐待关系中被赶出家门还是需要寻求破产，在大多数民事案件中你都没有权利获得免费的律师服务。
And because there aren't even close to enough pro bono or legal aid lawyers around, four out of five low-income Americans can't get the legal help they need to access their civil legal rights.
而且，由于没有足够的无偿的或者法律援助律师，五分之四的低收入美国人无法得到他们所需的法律帮助，从而难以实现他们的民事法律权利。
Four years ago, I helped start an organization to fight for new civil right in America, the right to solve your own legal problem when you can't afford a lawyer.
四年前，我帮助成立了一个旨在为美国新的公民权利而斗争的组织，这种新的公民权利即一个付不起律师费的人也能够解决自己的法律问题的权利。
We started with bankruptcy. Our nonprofit Upsolve has built an app to help people file for bankruptcy on their own for free.
我们先从“破产”开始，我们的非营利组织Upsolve建立了一个应用程序来帮助人们免费申请破产。
People like Danielle. Our app asks people questions about their finances in language they can understand and then uses this information to help generate their forms.
像丹妮尔这样的人，我们的应用程序能够以通俗易懂的语言询问他们的财务状况，然后利用这些信息生成关于他们的表格。
Last year, Danielle used Upsolve to file for bankruptcy on her own for free.
去年，丹妮尔自行使用Upsolve免费申请了破产。
She got her final letter from the court, relieving all of her medical debt, right after Christmas Day.
她在圣诞节后收到了来自法院的最后一封信，解除了她所有的医疗债务。
Today, Danielle has the highest paying job she's ever had and she's on track to finish her degree.
如今，丹妮尔拥有了一份她有史以来收入最高的工作，而且她还在攻读学位。
There are so many opportunities to create a more just legal system by empowering people to solve their own legal problems whenever possible.
只要有可能，只要人们被赋予了解决自己法律问题的权利，我们就有很多机会建立一个更加公正的法律体系。
This is especially true in nonadversarial areas of the law, things like no-asset bankruptcies, uncontested divorces and Social Security disability.
在法律的非对抗性领域尤其如此，如无资产破产、无争议离婚和社会安全残障。
But there are two main barriers that stand in the way.
不过，在我们前进的道路上有两大障碍。
The first is legal complexity. We've designed our forms in courts around lawyers, not regular people.
第一个是法律的复杂性。我们在法庭上的表格是围绕着律师而不是普通人设计的。
Many legal forms are like modern day literacy tests. When you can't understand them, you can't access your rights.
许多法律表格就像现代的识字测试，当你无法理解它们时你就无法获得自己的权利。
Every year, poorly designed forms, courts and processes deny millions of Americans their life, their liberty and their property.
每年，设计糟糕的表格、法院和程序剥夺了数百万美国人的生命、自由和财产。
Legal complexity is a civil rights injustice.
法律的复杂性是一种不公正的公民权利。
To start solving this problem, we need to require basic user testing in courts and reviser assumption in areas of poverty law that everybody will be able to afford a lawyer.
为了解决这个问题，我们需要在法庭上要求基本的用户测试并在贫困法领域修正假设，使得每个人都能请得起律师。
A second barrier is a closed culture.
第二大障碍是封闭的文化。
We've been met with pushback from some folks who believe that you need to go see a lawyer no matter what legal problem you have.
我们遭遇了一些人的反对，他们认为无论什么法律问题都需要有律师。
Imagine you had to go see a doctor to cure a plain old headache rather than being able to buy Advil at your local pharmacy.
就比如当你患上普通的头痛时需要去找医生而不是在当地药店买一盒止痛药。
Telling a person who is poor to go find a lawyer when they obviously can't afford one is out of touch, intimidating, unfair and wrong.
让一个显然负担不起律师的穷人去找律师，这种做法不现实且令人胆怯，不公平且错误。
It's also a racial injustice. Black and brown communities disproportionately cannot afford the legal fees they need to access their civil legal rights.
这同时也是“种族不平等”的表现。大多负担不起获得民事法律权利所需的法律费用的都是黑人和棕色肤色人种。
Many legal fees are like modern day poll taxes. When you can't afford to pay the fees, you can access your rights.
许多法律费用就像现代的人头税。当你付不起时，你就可以使用自己的权利。
And we have a decision to make about how open and equal we want our system of justice to be.
我们需要决定我们所希望的司法系统的开放和平等程度。
The only way we're ever going to have equal rights in America is if we get rid of the modern day literacy tests and poll taxes that dominate our courts and legal system.
要想在美国获得平等的权利，唯一的途径就是废除主宰着我们法庭和法律系统的现代识字测试和人头税。
We need a new civil right in America, the right to solve your own legal problem when you can't afford a lawyer.
美国需要一种新的公民权利：当我们请不起律师时也能够解决自己的法律问题的权利。
Because in America, our rights are supposed to be inalienable, our protections are supposed to be equal, and we all deserve a chance at life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, whether or not we can afford the legal fees. Thank you.
因为在美国，不管我们能否负担得起法律费用，我们的权利都应该是不可剥夺的，我们的保护都应该是平等的，我们都应该获得生存、自由和追求幸福的机会。谢谢。
