1. Improving Access to Justice with Legal Advisory Systems
Prepared for Law, Justice, and Development Week at the World Bank
Improving Access to Justice with Legal Advisory Systems
L. Karl Branting, J.D., Ph.D.
The MITRE Corporation
19 November 2015

2. Outline Motivation A framework for legal advisory systems
Example: the Protection Order Advisor (POA)
Lessons learned

3. Motivation Barriers to access to justice
Individualized legal assistance is often unafforable or unavailable
Scarcity of information about rights, procedures, and documents
Inaccessibility of courts or other forums
Formalization of law in computational form can:
Provide individualized legal assistance
Assist pro se citizens by
Informing them about legal rights
Guiding them through proceduresto assert those rights
Assisting with document drafting

4. A Framework for Legal Advisory Systems
Key system modules
Informing user of available forms of legal relief
Determining whether user can make a prima facie showing of requirements for legal relief
Informing user of procedural requirements for relief
Assisting user in drafting petitions or other documents needed to initiate legal action
Computational requirements
1 & 4 – instructional or tutorial techniques
2 – logic programming, i.e., inference over formal representation of legal rules and case facts
3 – automated document drafting
Well-known computational techniques for all 4 components

5. Example: The Protection Order Advisor
Legal advisory system for pro se protection order applicants
Victims of domestic abuse often can’t afford legal assistance
In US courts, staff find it distressing that they can’t give advice to domestic abuse victims
Implemented with funding from the Idaho Supreme Court
Implemented in logic-programming famework
Deployed on trial basis in multiple Idaho courthouses in early 2000’s

6. Opening Screen

7. Tutorial Screen

8. Data Elicitation Screen Showing Links to Definitions

9. Elicitation Screen for More Complex Data

10. Petition for Proecton Order

11. Lessons Learned from POA
Implementation
It is tractable to formalize routine legal rules for prima facie case in computational logic
Template-based techniques for document drafting adequate for routine petitions
Collecting and organizing self-instruction materials constitutes a large component of implementation
Total implementation costs for basic system not exorbitant
Design
Multilingual interface often necessary, e.g., Spanish and English in many US cities
Most useful in settings in which petitioner can get some assistance in using the program, e.g., by domestic violence counselor

12. Lessons Learned from POA
Access – broader availability may require access through
Web
Cell phones
Funding
Although development costs are typically low, there is little private sector interest in developing software for impecunious pro se litigators
Most cost-effective approach is for relatively simple systems with very broad usage

13. Summary
Technology for building legal advisory systems is well- understood
Legal advisory systems
Can operate in kiosks, websites, or smartphone apps
Address two of the three key obstacles to access to justice
Providing individualized legal assistance
Helping pro se litigants understand rights and procedures, and assisting with document drafting
Represent an inexpensive approach to increasing access to justice

14. Bibliography
L. Karl Branting, An Advisory System for Pro Se Protection Order Applicants, International Review of Law, Computers & Technology 14(3), (2000).
L. Karl Branting, Advisory Systems for Pro Se Litigants Proceedings of The Eighth International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Law (ICAIL-2001), May 21-25, 2001, St. Louis, Missouri.
Maurits Barendrecht, Legal Aid, Accessible Courts or Legal Information? Three Access to Justice Strategies Compared, Global Jurist, Vol. 11, Issue 1, January 2011