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A few weeks ago I went to a hearing in municipal court.  I was only there to observe.  I’d never seen one in person before.

And it was riveting.

As a law student, watching that hearing was like being a kid in a candy shop.  I was able to see all these things I had only read about in caselaw and textbooks.  It was about 8 hours long, but to me those hours just flew by.

But something else occurred to me during that hearing.  This is a horrible user experience.

What does that mean?  User experience (usually abbreviated to UX) is a term used in the tech community to describe the interaction between a user and some type of software, usually a website.  Is it easy to understand?  Is it Intuitive? Can a user easily find what they were looking for?Continue Reading UX in the Courtroom

Legal design is the application of human-centered design to the world of law, to make legal systems and services more human-centered, usable, and satisfying.  –Margaret Hagen, Law By Design

Legal design is an idea that says that the law needs to reach out to people, instead of making people come to the law.  If people in legal need are told to figure it out on their own, they’ll get nowhere.  All the resources in the world could be available for them, but if they don’t know about those resources or how to get them, then those resources are totally useless.

Photo from Pixabay.comSo a great way to apply legal design is to use it to help under-represented populations get the access to justice they need.  In Montana, where I am right now, the most marginalized groups are the Native American tribes.  Many of the tribe members have legal issues with no information about the resources available to them.

And there are several resources available.  The University of Montana offers a tribal law clinic for civil and criminal matters.  Montana Legal Services Association offers help in all civil matters, and some criminal matters for certain tribes.  There’s even a government website that puts all the basic legal information for each tribe in one place.

But many, if not most, tribal members have no idea how to access these
Continue Reading Reaching Native Tribes Through Legal Design

Promoting Justice for all, regardless of how much money someone has in their wallet, or their zip code.

Being a fellow through the ATJ Tech Fellowship means that I work with a host organization to really understand the nitty-gritty of the legal tech world. It allows me to come face to face with the problems that the access to justice community faces and try to come up with legal tech solutions to those problems.

This summer, my host organization is the Montana Legal Services Association (MLSA). This organization works with low-income Montanans to provide legal advice, information, and representation on civil legal issues such as domestic violence, landlord/tenant situations, parental rights, and so much more.Continue Reading A State-Wide Law Firm