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There are more than 320 digital legal tools designed for use by non-lawyers in the U.S., but access to justice expert Rebecca Sandefur says the potential for the technologies to assist Americans with their civil justice problems has largely gone unrealized.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of the tools that exist right now are neither efficiently scalable nor legally empowering, but there\u2019s no reason it has to stay that way,\u201d Sandefur said this week.<\/p>\n
The associate professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign was speaking during a Monday meeting of the State Bar of California\u2019s Task Force on Access Through Innovation of Legal Services.<\/p>\n
The 23-member panel is charged with \u201cidentifying possible regulatory changes to enhance the delivery of, and access to, legal services through the use of technology, including artificial intelligence and online legal service delivery models.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sandefur told the group that one promising digital legal is JustFix, a free app that allows tenants in New York to notify their landlord of issues needing repair.<\/p>\n
The app has a tenant go through a room-by-room checklist and upload photos, as well as other information, to document habitability problems. The tool then uses a lawyer-approved template to send a certified letter to the tenant\u2019s landlord outlining the concerns that need to be addressed to comply with housing codes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are very few things like this, but obviously there is a lot of potential here to work on specific problems in a focused way,\u201d Sandefur said.<\/p>\n
She said one reason there are not many effective tools was developers\u2019 fears of facing unauthorized practice of law allegations.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, the reason most of these tools are terrible is because there are deep concerns in the community of developers that you are going to go after them if they create a tool like JustFix that does something useful because it\u2019s nudging up against the edge of giving legal advice,\u201d Sandefur said.<\/p>\n
She said those fears were being driven by one of two things: either the developer community does not have a proper understanding of what constitutes legal advice, or the restrictions on unauthorized practice of law are too stringent.<\/p>\n
If the bar task force determines California\u2019s unauthorized practice of law regulations are too restrictive, Sandefur encouraged the panel to carefully consider ways to relax them so that tools helping consumers with their civil justice problems \u201ccan be useful, as well as used.\u201d<\/p>\n
Task force member Lori Gonzalez said she certainly would like to see the bar make it easier for non-attorneys to innovate in the legal tech space.<\/p>\n
Gonzalez noted that lawyers \u201cby personality are abnormally adverse to risk, which is the opposite of what you need to be an entrepreneur or to push innovation.\u201d<\/p>\n
The task force is charged with reviewing the consumer protection purposes of the prohibitions against unauthorized practice of law (UPL) and \u201cthe impact of those prohibitions on access to legal services with the goal of identifying potential changes that might increase access while also protecting the public.\u201d<\/p>\n
The panel is also examining alternative business structures, multidisciplinary practice models, lawyer advertising, and fee splitting. The task force is slated to submit its final recommendations to State Bar\u2019s Board of Trustees by the end of 2019.<\/p>\n
Sandefur said the discussion at the task force meeting left her encouraged about the group\u2019s efforts, and she told the panel they had a terrific opportunity to make a nationwide impact in this arena.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf California does something good, it helps a whole lot of people,\u201d Sandefur said. \u201cBut it\u2019s also a great model for the rest of the country, so I\u2019m delighted that you are starting to work on this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Access-to-justice expert Rebecca Sandefur also encourages panel to consider loosening unauthorized practice restrictions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89681,"featured_media":467711,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[234,5480,5483,7,5486],"class_list":["post-8153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-access-to-justice","tag-rebecca-sandefur","tag-state-bar-of-california","tag-technology","tag-unauthorized-practice-of-law"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/04\/Lyle-Moran-ATL-e1554338264129-150x150.jpg\")
Lyle Moran is a freelance writer in San Diego who handles both journalism and content writing projects. He previously reported for the Los Angeles Daily Journal, San Diego Daily Transcript, Associated Press, and Lowell Sun. He can be reached at lmoransun@gmail.com<\/a> and found on Twitter @lylemoran<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"