Using HotDocs online document assembly software donated by LexisNexis, the Chicago-Kent College of Law has teamed with the McGeorge Center for Access to the Courts Through Technology to provide Access to Justice (A2J), an aptly named Internet self-help system designed for people who cannot afford the high price of American jurisprudence.

A2J Accessible Courthouse

A working A2J prototype currently guides petitioners through simple divorces in Cook County, Illinois, generating all the necessary forms in a stepwise procedure that provides judges with "legible documents and educated pro-se litigants," explained Todd Pedwell, manager of the Chicago-Kent law school's Justice Web Collaboratory.

"Judges normally receive a stack of handwritten forms that are often barely decipherable from people without lawyers who know almost nothing about the process," Pedwell added.

Citing a "dramatic increase in the number of filings by self-represented litigants," Pedwell envisions Access to Justice handling "almost any type of case" using logical and factual patterns based on case and statutory law.

Self-represented litigants fill out and file forms according to accepted court rules, moving from pleadings to outcome by way of a guiding decision tree.

Human judges, of course, review and decide all cases.

"It's very exciting to see thoughtful people focus their energies on improving legal services with information technology," said attorney and legal technology expert Wendy Leibowitz. "If we can make the courts more accessible and their work more meaningful to the poor, or to underrepresented people in general -- whatever their financial status -- then the courts will work better for everyone."

Professional or Pro Se?

Pro se litigation has exploded nationally while "civil justice reform in the United States has failed to address the problems that self-represented litigants experience and create for judges and court staff," Pedwell explained.

He attributes the self-representation explosion to "the rising cost of legal services relative to inflation, decreases in funding for low-income legal services, and greater public desire for understanding of and active involvement in their personal legal affairs."

American courts, however, are infamous for their complexity, and people without lawyers face a dilemma that technology may help to alleviate.

For instance, pro se litigants can use many Internet legal tools, said Leibowitz, formerly the technology and computers editor for the National Law Journal.

"Richard Granat, a lawyer in Baltimore, has run My Lawyer for several years now, and ProBono.net is a major Web site that assists in hooking up lawyers and clients who can't afford to pay, particularly on immigration matters," Leibowitz added. "One of the finest pro bono sites out there is the California Courts Self Help Center." (continued...)

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