This report was originally commissioned by the Michigan State Bar Foundation to assist Michigan’s Solutions on Self-Help (SOS) Task Force, but modified to serve as a national resource so that it may be of value to other jurisdictions working to enhance su ...

This book collects the empirical evidence supporting the value of plain language in business, government, and law. Professor Kimble summarizes 50 studies (no less) that show using plain language can save organizations and agencies a significant amount of ...

A comprehensive best practices guide developed by New York covering the details of day-to-day operations of a self-help center, including a history of the New York state court help centers, initial considerations, types of services to offer, staffing and ...

Executive Summary The Michigan Legal Help Program (MLHP) consists of two components: an interactive statewide website and affiliated Self-Help Centers that provide legal information assistance to individuals representing themselves in simple civil legal m ...

Beginning in 2005, the New York State courts began developing Document Assembly Programs for use in its Help Centers using A2J Author for the front-end, HotDocs software for the back-end, and LawHelp Interactive server to host the programs. By 2009, this ...

Since 2007, Bet Tzedek Legal Services  has been running a self-help conservatorship clinic in partnership with the Los Angeles Superior Court. Originally designed to serve 150 self-represented litigants per year, the program served more than 1,400 self-re ...

This report investigates the current and possible uses of translation tools, including fully-automated machine translation and a somewhat different translation technology, translation memory. Translation memory re-uses whole phrases that an expert has pre ...

This article presents the results from the first quantitative readability study of plain language court forms in the United States. Sixty citizens on a jury panel were selected to respond to brief questionnaires that tested relative comprehension of plain ...

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 practit ...

In this article, Rochelle Klempner, Chief Counsel, New York State Courts Access to Justice Program, explores how document assembly systems can serve as a critical tool for access to justice for the self-represented litigant. Part I provides an overview of ...