Message Received: A Solution for Missed Court Hearings

Text message reminders help many of us manage our busy, day-to-day lives—especially for important appointments. But what happens when that appointment is a court date? These systems are often not digital and not set up to help people who forget or are missing information about their hearing. And the consequences for people missing their court date, even by accident, can escalate quickly. Pew's Michelle Russell tells us about the research behind why there can be a lot of no-shows in court. She shares how text reminders could address the main reason half of people missed their court hearings as well as could help people to better engage with courts and help courts to operate more effectively.

You can listen to Message Received: A Solution for Missed Court Hearings online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Message Received: A Solution for Missed Court Hearings is an episode from After the Fact by The Pew Charitable Trusts.

This episode is 11:31 long.

This episode was published on Mar 27, 2026.

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