Clear Information Can Help Millions of Americans Access the Civil Legal System
Research and analysis on strategies to maximize court investments in technology and better support litigants
Roughly 30 million Americans encounter a legal problem related to housing, finances, or family each year, and courts and other civil legal system operators, such as legal aid groups, have developed technology resources to help people navigate those matters. But without associated process improvements, technology projects cannot reach their full potential.
The Pew Charitable Trusts is partnering with Stanford University Law School and Suffolk University Law School to improve the availability, accessibility, and usability of online legal information and court forms. This work seeks to develop technology reforms that can help courts serve more people, and pair those changes with improvements to associated court processes in order to enhance people’s experiences and interactions with the legal system.
The resources collected here describe the scope and scale of the legal information currently available online and offer insights on how courts and others can expand and improve the quality and reliability of those offerings.
