This Week In Legal Tech: Real-World Examples Of Using Tech To Narrow The Justice Gap
Great examples of how technology can enhance the delivery of legal services to the poor and underserved.
I have read or heard a number of lawyers question the efficacy of technology as a means of helping to enhance access to justice. When I encounter such skeptics, I typically point them to the Legal Services Corporation’s 2013 Report of The Summit on the Use of Technology to Expand Access to Justice, which makes the case that technology can be a powerful tool in narrowing the justice gap. This year’s Report on the Future of Legal Services in the United States, from the ABA’s Commission on the Future of Legal Services, also effectively makes the case.
But there is another source of evidence in favor of technology’s effectiveness for enhancing access to justice – the real world.
Since 2000, the Legal Services Corporation has run a special grant program devoted to leveraging technology to more effectively meet the civil legal needs of low-income people. Over 16 years, the LSC has awarded $53.2 million of these Technology Initiative Grants to more than 640 projects.
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TIG-funded projects provide real-world examples of how technology can enhance the delivery of legal services to the poor and underserved. Over the years, initiatives funded at least partly through TIG grants have included Illinois Legal Aid, a legal services portal that connects low-income people to lawyers and resources to help solve their legal problems; MassProBono, a site that coordinates pro bono opportunities for lawyers, law students, paralegals and other professionals; and StatesideLegal.org, a free legal resource for members of the military, veterans, their families and advocates.
I was reminded of this when, earlier this month, the LSC announced its latest round of TIG grants. This year, it awarded 34 grants totaling $4.2 million to 27 legal services organizations in 20 states and one territory. Once again, the grants provide tangible examples of how technology can be used to enhance access to justice and the delivery of legal services.
In many locations, for example, geography is itself an obstacle to accessing legal help. This is the case in America Samoa, where residents of the isolated Manu’a islands are separated by some 80 miles of ocean from the legal services office in Pago Pago. A $62,000 TIG grant to American Samoa Legal Aid aims to address that by establishing four remote-interview locations on three separate islands, each with a desktop computer, a scanner/printer, and internet access.
A similar problem is addressed by an $81,000 grant to Southern Arizona Legal Aid, where rural clients are often unable to access the legal aid office due to lack of transportation, lack of funds to pay for transportation, or extreme distance. The grant will fund video conferencing to enable staff and volunteer attorneys to consult with these rural clients remotely.
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In Oklahoma, a $222,000 grant to Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma will go to creation of a statewide online triage site for anyone in the state seeking civil legal services. While the site will focus on addressing the legal needs of low-income individuals and other vulnerable populations, it will include legal resources for all Oklahomans. The purpose of the site will be to help identify a person’s legal needs and then direct the person to the best source of assistance.
Descriptions of all this year’s grantees can be read on the LSC’s site. Some other examples showing the variety of TIG grants awarded this year include:
- The Philadelphia Legal Assistance Center received $42,000 to create a statewide database of landlord-tenant eviction cases and then analyze the data to measure outcomes, determine gaps in access to counsel, and identify priority areas for pro bono assistance.
- A $122,000 grant to South Carolina Legal Services and the University of South Carolina’s School of Library and Information Science will be used to develop an information management system that will enable advocates to more efficiently store, search, locate and share documents statewide.
- Legal Services NYC received $77,500 to create an e-learning component to augment and expand its existing in-person CLE program in poverty law.
- Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles will use a $160,000 grant to develop a six-language online intake system that will be accessible to prospective clients 24/7 via smartphone, tablet and personal computer.
Meanwhile, in a separate initiative, the LSC is working with Pro Bono Net and Microsoft Corporation to create a pilot state legal-access portal. Microsoft is putting up at least $1 million to develop the portal, which backers hope will become the model for such sites nationwide.
Just last week, the LSC posted a request for proposals to identify the one or two states that will serve as home for the pilot. The deadline for submitting RFPs is Jan. 19, 2017.
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“Technology can and must play a vital role in transforming service delivery so that all poor people in the United States with an essential civil legal need obtain some form of effective assistance,” said the 2013 summit report. Each in their own way, the programs described above provide real-world examples of how this can be done.
Robert Ambrogi is a Massachusetts lawyer and journalist who has been covering legal technology and the web for more than 20 years, primarily through his blog LawSites.com. Former editor-in-chief of several legal newspapers, he is a fellow of the College of Law Practice Management and an inaugural Fastcase 50 honoree. He can be reached by email at ambrogi@gmail.com, and you can follow him on Twitter (@BobAmbrogi).
