Uncomplicated Courts Initiative

The high-volume justice journey simplified.

Countless people across the United States navigate legal issues without the help of a lawyer. This new norm in our courts leaves millions of everyday people to fend for themselves when facing high-stakes legal problems with life-altering consequences—and the deck is stacked against them. A negative outcome in a debt collection case can put your livelihood at risk. A negative outcome in a housing case could mean losing your home. We must redesign our approach to high-volume cases from start to finish, which begins with IAALS’ Uncomplicated Courts Initiative focused on responsive and adaptable courts that work for everyone.

The Uncomplicated Courts Initiative is creating the blueprint for courts to simplify their high-volume dockets and processes, and laying the foundation for an accessible legal system. Then, by layering in purpose-built and user-focused technology alongside strategically targeted legal help, courts will be optimized to meet the needs of people and their communities. Our work will break down the system silos, pilot and evaluate a comprehensive set of interventions, and develop coordinated and scalable solutions.

By bringing the pieces together into an integrated and deployable suite of court services, we can maximize their collective impact and empower people nationwide to navigate our legal system with ease—whether or not they have a lawyer on their side.

“The justice system was never built with the modern court user in mind, and today that user is overwhelmingly self-represented, particularly in these high-volume cases. This initiative reimagines the courts for the people they exist to serve. When we simplify the path, we protect dignity, improve outcomes, and restore trust.” — Danielle Kalil, project lead and IAALS’ Director of Civil Justice and the Judiciary

Objectives

• Achieve end-to-end high-volume process redesign through simplified court processes, more legal help resources, and user-focused technology.
• Unite stakeholders and connect existing efforts to foster collaborative innovation and idea-sharing.
• Identify, further develop, and test a comprehensive spectrum of interventions with partner courts in real-world settings.
• Package effective and scalable solutions into a suite of services than any court can replicate.

“It’s crucial that people be able to navigate their legal issues with clarity and that courts deliver justice to the people who need it most. Courts are ready to make changes but need support implementing and scaling integrated solutions. IAALS understands this urgency and is uniquely situated to unite collective efforts and bring real change.” – Justice Shannon Bacon, New Mexico Supreme Court

We are grateful to the State Justice Institute for providing funding support for this project, and to the National Center for State Courts for operating as a subgrantee on this project.

More about the Project

Our justice system was designed around an adversarial process, and navigating it has only become more complex and challenging over time. Court processes are needlessly convoluted and opaque, and legal help is often out of reach. Self-represented litigants feel like they are taking a trip without a map or wandering through a room with no lights on—every step they take seems confusing, risky, and daunting. The legal system was simply not built with the modern, everyday person in mind. At the same time, courts are often bound by funding and capacity constraints, despite a desire to modernize and update how they do business. The status quo serves no one, and the stakes are too high to continue as we have been. We need to streamline the overall court experience and recenter it around the people most impacted.

The legal system has grappled with this problem for years, but our approach to solutions has the potential to make significant progress through system redesign backed by a renewed sense of urgency. A vast majority of civil legal needs go unmet or are inadequately addressed in our country. When they do access courts, self-represented litigants are more likely to face bad outcomes, which can be devastating for individuals, families, and communities. When people can't navigate these issues because the system is so complex, the integrity and fairness of that system is compromised. But these problems have solutions. The pandemic and other recent crises demonstrate that courts can adapt and innovate swiftly. The barriers to change are often more about mindset and coordination than inherent difficulty. This project is about facilitating coordination, providing a framework for that mindset shift, and providing an actionable roadmap for people-centered change.

"Justice should serve people, not confuse them. Uncomplicated Courts is about removing needless complexity so people can resolve their disputes and protect their rights even if they cannot find a lawyer." — Chief Justice Wallace B. Jefferson (Ret.), Texas Supreme Court

IAALS will use a 3-pronged approach to the system redesign that these challenges demand:

1. Court process simplification as the primary driver of access. We see process simplification as a primary catalyst that amplifies all other access-to-justice efforts. By making the underlying legal processes and court business practices inherently easier to understand and navigate, we reduce friction for courts and litigants alike. When processes are clear and straightforward, it reduces the burden on court staff who spend less time explaining basic procedures, and on judges who deal with fewer procedural errors. This foundational simplification benefits everyone.
2. Legal help that is strategically targeted. When basic court navigation is simplified, legal help can be deployed more strategically by courts and communities, focusing on complex legal questions and personalized advocacy, rather than basic procedural guidance. This optimizes valuable legal expertise. Legal help encompasses both legal advice (including from lawyers and others, such as allied legal professionals and community justice workers) and legal information (such as legal navigators, wayfinding, and education about court processes).
3. Technology that is user-focused and purpose-built. There is a need to leverage modern, intuitive technology to make it easier for people to get the information they need, understand and complete the steps required, and even resolve disputes in a single platform or a system of well-connected tools. Rather than digitizing existing complexity or automating broken processes, technology is designed to support these simplified processes and expanded legal help, enhancing usability and accessibility for litigants, court staff, and judges.

Project Team