In June 2016, IAALS convened a group of people from around the country to discuss the development of an online tool designed to help people with potential legal problems in the family court arena and to help self-represented litigants with these kinds of cases in court. Attendees included technologists, private vendors, court administrators, practitioners, academics, legal services representatives, and an economist. The project was spurred by our recent research regarding self-represented litigants in family courts, which demonstrated their confusion, disempowerment, and feeling of miscarriage of justice through the process.
This paper is the outgrowth of that convening and details next steps in a plan designed to coalesce energy and funding toward achievement of such an online tool.
