Access to Justice and Technology Ronald W. Staudt

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Access to Justice and TechnologyRonald W. Staudt

• Class 1 Introduction
• August 26, 2004

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Access to Justice and Technology

• Mechanics
• Justice Web Collaboratory
• Will Hornsbys Article

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Access to Justice and Technology

• Seating Chart
• Course Website
• Course Information
• Class attendance
• Assignments
• Grading
• Class topics
• Paper topics
• Web Exercise

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What is the JWC?
Dedicated to improving access to justice
Leveraging web technology
Bringing different organizations together for a
common purpose
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JWC Major Projects

• Illinois Technology Center for Law and Public
  Interest (ITC) www.itcweb.org
• Illinois state-wide coalition of legal services
  providers, foundations and and bar associations
• Internet portal development, access to justice
  and legal services for low income individuals
• Access to Justice (A2J) www.judgelink.org/a2j/
• Interdisciplinary study of self represented
  litigants
• A2J prototype construction and testing
• Daley Center Self Help Web Desk
• A2J Author Project with CALI funded by the State
  Justice Institute
• Cook County Illinois, Lake County, Illinois
• Maryland
• California

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JWC Major Projects Research Ideas

• Access to Justice (A2J) www.judgelink.org/a2j/
• Unique experiment potential to change courts?
• Customer service digital infrastructure AI
• Interdisciplinary reflections
• Stories we experienced during the field research
• Student participation in new models, client
  interaction
• Illinois Technology Center for Law and Public
  Interest (ITC) www.itcweb.org
• Student involvement in public service, clinical
  and writing opportunities curriculum
  innovation
• Knowledge management, practice impact of web
  tools

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Access to JusticeA Compelling Challenge

• Statewide A2J Portals
• Massive Need
• LSC turns to technology
• Court Redesign
• Courts left behind
• Pro se explosion

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The Need

• 35,000,000 Americans live in households with
  income below the poverty level
• 10,000,000 more are potentially eligible for
  legal services with income between 100 - 125 of
  poverty levels

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Need for Legal Services

• LSC agencies closed 1,000,000 cases for low
  income clients in 1999
• Still
• 80 of the Poor and Working Poor in the United
  States Do Not Have Access to Legal Services

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LSC- Technology Initiative Grants

• As a result of the additional 4.25 million LSC
  received in FY 2000 for technology initiatives,
  our Office of Program Performance established the
  Technology Initiative Grants ("TIG") Program.
  We identified three priorities for proposals
• showcase how a complete package of technology
  tools can help indigent clients with access to
  legal services and self-help information
• new and innovative uses of technology for
  assisting clients and
• promote the linkage of offices to provide a more
  cohesive delivery system.

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• Unprecedented statewide collaboration
• To increase access to justice for low income and
  disadvantaged persons through innovative use of
  technology to train, support, and educate legal
  aid providers, pro bono attorneys, and the
  public.
• Partners
• Cabrini Green Legal Aid Clinic Illinois Bar
  Foundation
• CARPLS Chicago-Kent College of Law/IIT
• The Chicago Bar Foundation National Center on
  Poverty Law, Inc.
• Prairie State Legal Services Chicago Volunteer
  Legal Services
• Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois Land of Lincoln
  Legal Assistance Foundation
• Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan
  Chicago
• Southern Illinois University School of Law-Self
  Help Center

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Customers
Producers
Portals
IllinoisLegalAid Site

• Courthouse
• Legal Aid
• Office
• Social
• Service
• Agency
• Law School
• Clinics
• Libraries
• Public
• Libraries
• Home

Authors Experts
ITCweb.org
IllinoisProBono Site
CMS
IllinoisLawHelp Site
Managers Editors
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Customers
Producers
Portals
IllinoisLegalAid Site

• Courthouse
• Legal Aid
• Office
• Social
• Service
• Agency
• Law School
• Clinics
• Libraries
• Public
• Libraries
• Home

Authors Experts
ITCweb.org
IllinoisProBono Site
CMS
IllinoisLawHelp Site
Managers Editors
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Customers
Producers
Portals
IllinoisLegalAid Site

• Courthouse
• Legal Aid
• Office
• Social
• Service
• Agency
• Law School
• Clinics
• Libraries
• Public
• Libraries
• Home

Authors Experts
ITCweb.org
IllinoisProBono Site
CMS
IllinoisLawHelp Site
Managers Editors
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Customers
Producers
Portals
IllinoisLegalAid Site

• Courthouse
• Legal Aid
• Office
• Social
• Service
• Agency
• Law School
• Clinics
• Libraries
• Public
• Libraries
• Home

Authors Experts
ITCweb.org
IllinoisProBono Site
CMS
IllinoisLawHelp Site
Managers Editors
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Access to Justice

• Meeting the Needs of Self-Represented Litigants
• A consumer based approach

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Barriers Facing Consumers Seeking Access to Courts

• Too expensive
• Complexity -- 50 attribute excessive costs to
  complexity
• Lawyers -- 85 of Americans attribute excessive
  costs to attorneys
• Lack of information about processes
• Lack of Legal Representation
• Distrust of Lawyers

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Barriers to Re-engineering Courts

• Decentralized Funding and Control
• Lack of Resources
• Time Constraints
• Lack of Technical Know-how
• System Constraints

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Access to JusticeFunding Partners

• State Justice Institute
• Open Society Institute
• Center for Access to the Courts Through
  Technology
• Preparing Global Leaders in the Heart of America
  Pritzker/Galvin Match
• Project Partners
• National Center for State Courts
• Chicago-Kent College of Law
• Institute of Design
• Part 2 CALI, AOC in California, Maryland JN

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Project Staging

• PHASE 1, FALL 2000Identify the major barriers
  to access to justice by litigants without
  lawyers
• PHASE 2, SPRING 2001Employ the latest in system
  design methodology to redesign the process
• PHASE 3, 2001-2002Translate conceptual models
  into an Internet based prototype

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Phase 1 2

• Shadow the Customer Ethnographic research in 5
  courts, California, Delaware, Colorado Illinois
  
• what do people want from courts,
• what do they do in the courthouse
• Design new solutions Structured Workshop to
  design new solutions from the customers
  perspective
• Charter, Defining Statements, Design Factors,
  Function Structure, Information Structure and
• 53 Solution Elements in a System Structure
• Report available at http//www.judgelink.org/a2j/
  and in a book released this summer.

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Phase 3 Prototype Developmentwww.judgelink.org/A
2J/

• Prototype Proof of Concept and Toolkit
• Traveling down a guided path
• Easy to use interface
• Personal guide
• Map
• Personal Folder and Document List
• Operational Prototype Simple Illinois Divorce

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Judgelink.org\A2J\prototypes\

• Cook County Illinois Joint Simplified Dissolution
  of Marriage Guide me w/ HotDocs linkage

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Customer Data
XML
XML
E-Filing at Courthouse Server
Document Assembly Server (LEXISNEXIS HotDocs
OnLine)
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Shift to the Digital Paradigm Will Hornsby

• Unmet need
• Two tiers of law practice corporate/institutional
  clients personal plight lawyers
• Pro se and unbundling
• Inefficiencies of traditional model and digital
  design efficiencies

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Inefficiencies of traditional model and digital
design efficiencies

• Client development
• Intake and screening
• Client education
• Form preparation
• Geographical barriers
• Ongoing client communication
• Dispute resolution
• Ancillary businesses

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What is Unbundling?

• The client is in charge of selecting one of
  several discrete lawyering tasks contained within
  the full-service package.
• Forrest Mosten

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Why do we care?

• Access to Justice remains a serious problem in
  the US and by providing limited service
  representation or unbundled services in the
  area of civil law we may be able to stretch
  limited free services and make for cost
  services affordable to a larger segment of our
  society.
• Kim Prochnau
• King County Superior Court Administrator

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Next Class

• Unmet need and self represented litigants
• Required Reading
• Deborah L. Rhode, Professionalism in Perspective
  Alternative Approaches to Nonlawyer Practice, 1
  J. Inst. Stud. Leg. Eth. 197 (1996).
• ABA Legal Needs Study
• Illinois Legal Needs Study
• Recommended Reading
• Owen, Staudt Pedwell, Access to Justice
  Meeting the Needs of Self-Represented Litigants
  (2002).