Access to Justice (A2J)

GPT Takes the Bar Exam — from papers.ssrn.com by Michael James Bommarito and Daniel Martin Katz; with thanks to Gabe Teninbaum for his tweet on this

Excerpt from the Abstract (emphasis DSC):

While our ability to interpret these results is limited by nascent scientific understanding of LLMs and the proprietary nature of GPT, we believe that these results strongly suggest that an LLM will pass the MBE component of the Bar Exam in the near future.

LLM — Large Language Model
MBE — Multistate Bar Examination

Seriously, #ChatGPT is going to change everything about how people gain access to legal information and guidance. Look at this. pic.twitter.com/BkxZlMxB9o

— Jordan Furlong (@jordan_law21) December 2, 2022

Speaking of technology and the law, also see:

Out today! Catch the latest episode of Talk Justice for a look at creative ways to connect people with legal professionals and resources– by bus, kiosks and even a kayak! https://t.co/wApNohRJw3

— Legal Services Corp. (@LSCtweets) November 29, 2022

Holding Court Outside the Courtroom — from legaltalknetwork.com

Host: Molly McDonough, Legal Talk Network Podcast Producer and Founder of Molly McDonough Media, LLC.

Guests:

Dori Rapaport, Executive Director at Legal Aid Services of Northeastern Minnesota
David Estep, Supervising Attorney at Legal Aid of West Virginia
Honorable Jeanne M. Robison, Salt Lake City Justice Court Judge

If this is where telehealth is at in 2022, what might telelegal look like in a few years? [Christian]

On 12/01/2022, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, Access to Justice (A2J), change, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, communications, communities of practice, Cost of legal services - including access, Daniel S. Christian, innovation, internet, law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, multimedia, new business models, telelegal, telemedicine / telehealth / virtual health, tools, trends, United States, usability, user experience (UX), vendors, videoconferencing, Virtual courts and law firms, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, Web3, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
I received an email the other day re: a TytoCare Exam Kit. It said (with some emphasis added by me):

With a TytoCare Exam Kit connected to Spectrum Health’s 24/7 Virtual Urgent Care, you and your family can have peace of mind and a quick, accurate diagnosis and treatment plan whenever you need it without having to leave your home.

Your TytoCare Exam Kit will allow your provider to listen to your lungs, look inside your ears or throat, check your temperature, and more during a virtual visit.

Why TytoCare?

- Convenience – With a TytoCare Exam Kit and our 24/7/365 On-Demand Virtual Urgent Care there is no drive, no waiting room, no waiting for an appointment.
- Peace of Mind – Stop debating about whether symptoms are serious enough to do something about them.
- Savings – Without the cost of gas or taking off work, you get the reliable exams and diagnosis you need. With a Virtual Urgent Care visit you’ll never pay more than $50. That’s cheaper than an in-person urgent care visit, but the same level of care.

From DSC:
It made me reflect on what #telehealth has morphed into these days. Then it made me wonder (again), what #telelegal might become in the next few years…? Hmmm. I hope the legal field can learn from the healthcare industry. It could likely bring more access to justice (#A2J), increased productivity (for several of the parties involved), as well as convenience, peace of mind, and cost savings.

The Justice Gap: The Unmet Civil Legal Needs of Low-income Americans

On 11/28/2022, in Access to Justice (A2J), ethics, hearts -- matters of the heart, law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legislatures / government / legal, Michigan, morals/values, policy, political science, society, sociology, trends, United States, by Daniel Christian

The Justice Gap: The Unmet Civil Legal Needs of Low-income Americans — from the Legal Services Corporation

Legal Services Corporation’s 2022 Justice Gap Report provides a comprehensive look at the differences between the civil legal needs of low-income Americans and the resources available to meet those needs. LSC’s study found that low-income Americans do not get the help they need for 92% of their civil legal problems, even though 74% of low-income households face at least one civil legal issue in a single year.

The consequences that result from a lack of appropriate counsel can be life-altering – low-income Americans facing civil legal problems can lose their homes, children and healthcare, among other things. Help can be hard to access, so LSC is working to bridge this “justice gap” by providing pro bono civil legal aid for those in need. Find out more about LSC’s work to ensure equal justice for all by tuning in to the rest of the Justice Gap video series.

For more information on the Justice Gap, visit https://justicegap.lsc.gov/.

Also relevant/see:

This report was mentioned by the Chief Justice of Michigan’s Supreme Court, Bridget McCormack, at her 11/4/22 presentation at the University of Pennsylvania’s Law 2030 event.
.

.

2022 Winners of the LegalTech Breakthrough Awards — from legaltechbreakthrough.com

Categories include:

Case Management
Client Relations
Data & Analytics
Documentation
Legal Education
Practice Management
Legal Entity Management
Legal Research
Online Dispute Resolution
Contract Management
eDiscovery
Marketplaces
RegTech
Leadership

Also see:

Soaring Travel Costs Put Lawyers Back on Zoom –– from kift.com Matthew Parsons
Rising airfares and travel costs are prompting legal professionals involved in dispute resolutions to return to video conferencing.
Global Dispute Resolution: The Future of Virtual Legal Proceedings Is Shaped by Soaring Travel Costs — from matlawreview.com

With the cost of international air travel rising sharply, remote hearings are a practical alternative to in-person proceedings. International travel is expensive, and the virtual option means that it is no longer necessary to count travel as a “cost of doing business” when pursuing an international dispute. The widespread use of technology in global dispute resolution proceedings gives attorneys and their clients the option to participate remotely, which is a compelling cost saver for all parties.

Most debt lawsuits get decided without a fight. Michigan leaders want to change the rules. — from mlive.com by Matthew Miller
Excerpt:
Most of the 1.9 million debt collection cases filed in Michigan’s district courts over the past decade or so never went to trial. Usually, the defendants don’t show up to court, and debt collectors win by default, according to data compiled by the Michigan Justice for All Commission. In most cases, the courts end up garnishing defendants’ wages, income tax returns or other assets, sometimes on the basis of complaints that include little more than the name of the creditor, an account number and the balance due.

And both debt lawsuits and garnishment are more common for people living in primarily Black neighborhoods, regardless of their income.

Members of the Commission say Michigan’s rules around debt collection lawsuits don’t do enough to protect regular people, who sometimes don’t find out they’ve been sued until they see money coming out of their paychecks.

They say those rules need to change.

World-first virtual legal clinic opens for business across BC, aiming to increase affordability, diversity and reach of legal professionals — from finance.yahoo.com by Access Pro Bono

An early participant in the Law Society of BC’s Innovation Sandbox, the Clinic offers the in-person and virtual help of 25 articling students located in 15 different BC communities —from Tofino to Cranbrook— with the support of 15 supervising lawyers, four staff and dozens of local mentors. Together, they provide fixed-fee services in a wide range of areas covering everyday legal problems.

Yale and Harvard’s Law Schools Are Ditching the ‘U.S. News’ Rankings. Will Others Follow? [Diep]

On 11/17/2022, in Access to Justice (A2J), innovation, law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, society, sociology, UK, United States, using teams, by Daniel Christian

Yale and Harvard’s Law Schools Are Ditching the ‘U.S. News’ Rankings. Will Others Follow? — from chronicle.com by Francie Diep

Excerpt:

Yale Law School — long ranked No. 1 by U.S. News & World Report — is quitting the magazine’s rankings, it announced Wednesday. Hours after that announcement, which was first reported by The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Law School said it would do the same.

“U.S. News stands in the way of progress for legal education and the profession,” said Heather Gerken, Yale Law School’s dean. “It’s made it harder for law schools to admit and support low-income students, and it’s undermining efforts to launch a generation to serve. Now is the time to take a step.”

Also related/see:

Berkeley joins Harvard and Yale boycott of U.S. News law school rankings — from news.yahoo.com by Karen Sloan
Harvard and Yale law schools ditch U.S. News & World Report’s rankings: “Profoundly flawed” — from cbsnews.com by Aimee Picchi
Dean Gerken: Why Yale Law School Is Leaving the U.S. News & World Report Rankings — from law.yale.edu
More law schools reject U.S. News list, but publication pledges to keep ranking ‘regardless of whether schools agree’ — from highereddive.com by Rick Seltzer

Some other legal-related items include:

IAALS Releases New Allied Legal Professionals Landscape Report and Resource Center in an Effort to Increase Legal Options for the Public — iaals.du.edu

Excerpt:

IAALS, the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System at the University of Denver, announced today that it released its new Allied Legal Professionals landscape report, along with an accompanying online Knowledge Center. With generous support from the Sturm Family Foundation, this project seeks to help standardize a new tier of legal professionals nationally, with the goal of increasing the options for accessible and affordable legal help for the public.

“Today, the majority of Americans are faced with a very serious access to justice problem—not only low-income populations, as many people believe. And the pandemic has only made matters worse in recent years,” says Jim Sandman, chair of IAALS’ board of advisors and President Emeritus of the Legal Services Corporation. “For example, studies show that around 40–60% of the middle class have legal needs that remain unmet. Simply put: people want legal help, and they are not getting the help they need.”

Legal Innovators: An Ecosystem of Change Agents! — from artificiallawyer.com

The expanding role of technology in the law firm business model (338) — from legalevolution.org by Kenneth Jones
Legal technology is slowly becoming core to the legal business. It’s time to commit to a cross-functional team approach.

Excerpt:

The premise of this post is that individual capabilities and excellence (either legal or technical) standing alone are not enough to ensure long-term, sustainable success. No superstar technologist or lawyer is equipped to do it all, as there are too many specialties and functional roles which need to be filled. Rather, a better approach is to construct team-based, cross-functional units that offer greater operational efficiency while building in layers of redundancy that reduce the potential for surprises, errors, or disruption. Cf Post 323 (Patrick McKenna’s “rules of engagement” for high-performing legal teams).

From DSC:
I virtually attended the Law 2030 Conference (Nov 3-4, 2022). Jennifer Leonard and staff from the University of Pennsylvania’s Carey Law School put together a super conference! It highlighted the need for change within the legal industry. A major shout out to Jennifer Leonard, Theodore Ruger (Law School Dean), and others!

I really appreciate Jen’s vision here, because she recognizes that the legal industry needs to involve more disciplines, more specialists, and others who don’t have a JD Degree and/or who haven’t passed the Bar. On Day 1 of the conference (in the afternoon), Jen enlisted the help of several others to use Design Thinking to start to get at possible solutions to our entrenched issues.

America, our legal system is being tightly controlled and protected — by lawyers. They are out to protect their turf — no matter the ramifications/consequences of doing so. This is a bad move on many lawyers part. It’s a bad move on many Bar Associations part. Lawyers already have some major PR work to do — but when America finds out what they’ve been doing, their PR problems are going to be that much larger. I’d recommend that they change their ways and really start innovating to address the major access to justice issues that we have in the United States.

One of the highlights for me was listening to the powerful, well-thought-out presentation from Michigan’s Chief Justice Bridget McCormack — it was one of the best I’ve ever heard at a conference! She mentioned the various stakeholders that need to come to the table — which includes law schools/legal education. I also appreciated Jordan Furlong’s efforts to deliver a 15-minute presentation (virtual), which it sounded like he worked on most of the night when he found out he couldn’t be there in person! He nicely outlined the experimentation that’s going on in Canada.

Here’s the recording from Day 1:

Jeff Selingo’s comments this week reminded me that those of us who have worked in higher education for much of our careers also have a lot of work to do as well.

Addendum on 11/8/22:

The Technology That Is Revolutionising How Business Gets Done [artificiallawyer.com]

On 10/19/2022, in Access to Justice (A2J), Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, future, game-changing environment, innovation, law schools, Legal operations, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, UK, by Daniel Christian

The Technology That Is Revolutionising How Business Gets Done — from artificiallawyer.com

Excerpt:

We are on the cusp of a revolution. Contract negotiation, with all the associated document redlines and email threads, is about to get a whole lot quicker. Today, artificial intelligence has the potential to save lawyers hours of intense editing – but only if they embrace the sector-wide behaviour change this could ignite.
…
Technology has reached the point that much of the initial legwork of perusing a contract can be done by a piece of software. Precision AI can scan a document and create a list of issues based on how a lawyer typically contracts. It is then up to the lawyer to accept or disregard those issues, but the point is that the initial editing time is greatly reduced.

Several items from the Clio Cloud Conference plus other legal innovation/future-related items

On 10/16/2022, in Access to Justice (A2J), blogs / blogging / vlogging, future, innovation, law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, marketing/social marketing, podcasting, strategy, telelegal, trends, United States, vendors, Virtual courts and law firms, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Many of the items below are from Laurence Colletti’s posting, Clio Cloud Conference – The Big Return

Clio Cloud 2022: Innovation in the Courts with Judge Schlegel — from legaltalknetwork.com by Laurence Colletti and Judge Scott Schlegel

Episode notes:

The pandemic was a driver for change in justice systems around the globe, but one court’s innovative and inexpensive approach is worth a closer look. Judge Scott Schlegel manages what may be one of the most advanced courts in the United States for delivering justice online. Tune in for his tips on how any jurisdiction in the country can modernize its justice system for under a thousand dollars. Go to https://www.onlinejudge.us/ for all of Judge Schlegel’s recommendations.

Clio Cloud 2022: The Benefits of a Legal Blog — from legaltalknetwork.com by Laurence Colletti and Teresa Matich, Kevin O’Keefe, and Iffy Ibekwe
Legal blog posts are great tools for building relationships with potential clients because they build trust, credibility, and allow you to create a personal connection with your clients.

LawNext Podcast: What Is Justice Tech? A Conversation with Maya Markovich — from lawnext.com by

Excerpt:

An increasing number of startups are defining themselves not as legal tech, but as justice tech. So what, exactly, is justice tech, who are some of the companies that represent it, and what is the business opportunity they present for potential investors? Our guest this week is Maya Markovich, executive director of the Justice Technology Association, an organization formed earlier this year to support companies in the justice tech sector.

Clio Cloud 2022: Insights from Clio’s 2022 Legal Trends Report — from legaltalknetwork.com by Laurence Colletti, Joshua Lenon, and Rio Peterson
Amid Inflation, Rising Interest Rates, and Volatile Employment Markets, Clio takes a look at How Global Trends have Impacted Business and Productivity among law firms.

Clio Cloud 2022: What Lies Ahead for Legal with Jack Newton — from legaltalknetwork.com by Laurence Colletti and Jack Newton

Episode notes:

The world of lawyering has surged in spite of the pandemic, but new adversity looms. Fears over inflation, war, hiring markets, and a recession have left many attorneys wondering how to prepare for the coming months. Jack Newton discusses the concept of anti-fragility and its place as a mental model for law firms as they face an uncertain future. Jack outlines how deliberate preparation can help your law firm thrive in the midst of opposition.

Jack Newton is CEO and co-founder of Clio.

Clio Cloud 2022: How Content Creation Can Grow Your Law Firm — from legaltalknetwork.com by Laurence Colletti

Also related, see:

Virtual Courts Are Not Going Away — from news.bloomberglaw.com by Jon David Kelley
As the pandemic winds down, courts are shifting to a hybrid approach that incorporates remote with live proceedings. Jon David Kelley of Kirkland says virtual courts can expand access to justice, but care should be taken to maintain credible representation.

The Future of Virtual Legal Proceedings Just Became More Certain with the Launch of Calloquy [Calloquy]

On 10/09/2022, in Access to Justice (A2J), ideas, innovation, law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, vendors, Virtual courts and law firms, by Daniel Christian

The Future of Virtual Legal Proceedings Just Became More Certain with the Launch of Calloquy — from businesswire.com by Calloquy
Hundreds gathered in Atlanta to celebrate and hear from leading legal innovation voices about The Next Era of Litigation

Excerpts:

The event celebrated the launch of Calloquy’s new virtual legal proceeding platform, which offers distinct usability benefits on a foundation of world-class security and industry-specific videoconferencing technology, including:

The platform’s intuitive design delivers a virtual experience that is akin to conventional legal proceedings, with clearly marked titles for all participants and traditional seating arrangements. The participants in a remote deposition, for example, are organized with plaintiffs on one side and defendants on the other.
Robust collaboration tools, combined with role-based security, ensure that only the right people have access to only the right information—and only at the right time. Documents or comments cannot accidentally be passed to an adversary.
The platform’s integrated case management tools streamline the complex litigation process by enabling meetings and proceedings to be scheduled, exhibits to be managed and transcripts to be created and archived all in one place.

“My goal in starting Calloquy is to help drive ‘the next era of litigation’, which means improving the way all people experience the legal system, from the most high-profile commercial litigator to the most underserved defendant and the lawyer who works pro bono on their behalf.”

Two neighboring states — Oregon and California — have recently come to different conclusions on whether to license paralegals to provide some legal services.

On 10/04/2022, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Access to Justice (A2J), change, changing business models, innovation, law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legislatures / government / legal, new business models, policy, society, United States, webinars, by Daniel Christian

Utah’s reforms offer model for serving low-income and indigent people, report suggests — from abajournal.com by Matt Reynolds

Excerpt:

The Utah model of reform allowing nonlawyers to offer legal services could be “critical” to serving people who can’t afford them, according to a Stanford Law School study published Tuesday.

The 59-page report by the school’s Deborah L. Rhode Center on the Legal Profession offers an early look at how regulatory changes in Arizona and Utah have impacted the delivery of legal services. It also examined who is being served by innovations in those states.

Also relevant, see this upcoming webinar:

Two neighboring states — Oregon and California — have recently come to different conclusions on whether to license paralegals to provide some legal services.

In July, the Oregon Supreme Court, with the support of the Oregon State Bar’s Board of Governors, approved a proposal to allow licensed paralegals to provide limited legal services in family law and landlord/tenant cases — two areas of law with large numbers of self-represented litigants. In August, the California legislature, after opposition from some lawyers’ groups, prohibited the State Bar of California from implementing, or even proposing, any loosening of existing restrictions on the unauthorized practice of law before 2025, effectively killing a proposal to permit licensing of paraprofessionals to provide limited legal services.

This webinar will explore how and why Oregon and California reached conflicting results and identify lessons learned from both experiences.

Register >>

Also relevant/see:

IAALS Panel Explores Alternative Paths to Legal Licensure — from iaals.du.edu

Redesigning Legal: Redesigning How We License New Lawyers from IAALS on Vimeo.

Also see the following items from Natalie Anne Knowlton (@natalalleycat) on Twitter

A new study shows that Utah and Arizona’s ongoing experiments with loosening attorney regulations are offering lawyers “a host of new opportunities to extend their reach” without triggering an increase in consumer complaints. By @JgreeneJenna https://t.co/IWfpvl8o5G pic.twitter.com/85ruA2K1DN

— Reuters Legal (@ReutersLegal) October 4, 2022

“They may call it innovation; I call it shifting the profits of the legal industry to nonlawyers” – Stephen Younger via @ABAJournal https://t.co/lobRhQonu4

— Natalie Anne Knowlton (@natalalleycat) September 30, 2022

Those in the legal world may want to watch what’s happening with telehealth. [Christian]

On 09/30/2022, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Access to Justice (A2J), Asia, Daniel S. Christian, emerging technologies, health, Metaverse, telelegal, telemedicine / telehealth / virtual health, UK, United States, vendors, videoconferencing, Virtual courts and law firms, Web3, by Daniel Christian

DC: Those in the legal world may want to watch what's happening with telehealth. #legaltech #law #legal #A2J #telehealth #telelegal #innovation #emergingtechnologies https://t.co/QGK0BrPR8t

— Daniel Christian (he/him/his) (@dchristian5) September 30, 2022

The Artificial Lawyer Guide to Legal Tech – Autumn 2022 [artificiallawyer.com]

On 09/15/2022, in Access to Justice (A2J), Cost of legal services - including access, law schools, Legal operations, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, UK, by Daniel Christian

The Artificial Lawyer Guide to Legal Tech – Autumn 2022 — from artificiallawyer.com

Excerpt:

It’s been a wild ride the last couple of years, but what should we be looking out for as we move into the Autumn of 2022? Here are some thoughts from Artificial Lawyer.

Bridget McCormick, Michigan Chief Justice Who Has Championed Access-to-Justice Initiatives, Named President of AAA [Ambrogi]

On 09/15/2022, in 21st century, Access to Justice (A2J), leadership, legal reform, legislatures / government / legal, Michigan, society, United States, by Daniel Christian

Bridget McCormick, Michigan Chief Justice Who Has Championed Access-to-Justice Initiatives, Named President of AAA — from legaltechmonitor.com by Bob Ambrogi

Excerpt:

Bridget M. McCormack, who, as chief justice of the Michigan Supreme Court, has been a leading voice on modernizing the court and justice systems to expand access to justice, is retiring from the court at the end of this year and in February will become president and chief executive officer of the American Arbitration Association-International Centre for Dispute Resolution (AAA-ICDR).
…
In recent years, McCormack has become a leading champion of initiatives to enhance access to justice, both within Michigan and nationally.

ABA cleans up accreditation rules surrounding distance education for law schools — from highereddive.com by Lilah Burke

Dive Brief (emphasis DSC):

Recent amendments to American Bar Association accreditation standards addressed definitions of distance education, but Leo Martinez, immediate past chair of the ABA Council for the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, says the resolution won’t change much for law schools without waivers allowing them to conduct extra distance education.
The changes, made at the ABA’s annual meeting in August, were meant to clarify language in accreditation standards.
The ABA, which serves as the accreditor for 199 law schools and programs, requires waivers for institutions that want to offer more than one-third of J.D. program credits online. But it remains interested in reviewing distance education.

From DSC:
For an industry in the 21st century whose main accreditation/governance body for law schools still won’t let more online learning occur without waivers…

…how can our nation expect future lawyers and law firms to be effective in an increasingly tech-enabled world?

Here’s the pace of change in the world today:

The exponential pace of change is like warp speed for the U.S.S. Enterprise (Star Trek) or the hyperdrive on the Millennium Falcon (Star Wars).

Yet here’s the pace that the American Bar Association (@ABAesq) has been taking — and continues to take — at least in the area of supporting online-based learning as well as in developing sandboxes/new methods of improving access to justice (#A2J):

.

It’s high time the ABA did their research re: online-based learning and majorly picked up their pace. Undergraduate online-based education started back in the late 1990’s for crying out loud! (And the number of students taking one or more of their courses completely online has been increasing ever since that time.)

Plus, many law school students are adults who have jobs as well as families. They often don’t have the time nor the money to travel to campuses in order to take part in something that they could have easily accomplished online.

It’s also appropriate to recognize here that the current learning ecosystems out there continue to move more towards hybrid/blended learning models as well as a hyflex model.

The ABA is not serving law school students nor our citizenry well at all in this regard.

Learning Ecosystems

If this is where telehealth is at in 2022, what might telelegal look like in a few years? [Christian]

The Justice Gap: The Unmet Civil Legal Needs of Low-income Americans

Yale and Harvard’s Law Schools Are Ditching the ‘U.S. News’ Rankings. Will Others Follow? [Diep]

Lawyers already have some major PR work to do — but when America finds out what they’ve been doing, their PR problems are going to be that much larger. [Christian]

Several items from the Clio Cloud Conference plus other legal innovation/future-related items

The Future of Virtual Legal Proceedings Just Became More Certain with the Launch of Calloquy [Calloquy]

Two neighboring states — Oregon and California — have recently come to different conclusions on whether to license paralegals to provide some legal services.

Those in the legal world may want to watch what’s happening with telehealth. [Christian]

The Artificial Lawyer Guide to Legal Tech – Autumn 2022 [artificiallawyer.com]

Bridget McCormick, Michigan Chief Justice Who Has Championed Access-to-Justice Initiatives, Named President of AAA [Ambrogi]

In the USA, the perspectives of the ABA re: online-based learning — and their take on the pace of change — are downright worrisome. [Christian]

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