David Engstrom | AI and Access to Justice

Abstract:

Two powerful forces are bearing down on the American legal system: mounting concern about access to justice, including the bracing fact that a majority of litigants in American courts are self-represented, and stunning advances in AI, which have brought even higher-order legal cognitions within automation’s sights. This talk will review the institutional, technical, and legal barriers to effective and trustworthy AI-based tools that can help close the justice gap, whether in a fast-growing “legal tech” marketplace or in courts themselves. On the latter, the seminar will report on a first-of-its-kind collaboration between Stanford Law School and the Los Angeles Superior Court, the nation’s largest trial court, that is rethinking the court’s digital pathways for serving court users in evictions, debt collections, and family matters.