Report: Report of the Summit on the Use of Technology to Expand Access to Justice (LSC 2013)

In 2012 and 2013, the Legal Services Corporation convened a national Technology Summit that brought together more than 75 representatives of legal aid programs, courts, government, and business as well as technology experts, academics, and private practitioners to explore the role of technology in expanding access to justice. The “Report of The Summit on the Use of Technology to Expand Access to Justice” focuses on ways to use technology to provide all Americans some form of effective assistance with essential civil legal needs and presents a number of concrete recommendations to broaden and improve civil legal assistance through an integrated service-delivery system that brings the knowledge and wisdom of legal experts to the public through computers and mobile devices. The impact of this summit and its report is strongly felt today as numerous states have begun to explore the possibility of creating an on-line legal portal that could provide consumers with a one-stop tool to explore legal information, tools and calculators to assess their options and integrated referral systems to legal providers and the courts. This is considered by many to be an essential backbone to developing an ecosystem that will support 100% access to effective legal assistance.