Narrow the Justice Gap: Leveraging AI to Best Represent Your Clients

Every year, millions of Americans contend with legal problems during critical moments in their lives. Families may face eviction, overwhelming debt, bankruptcy, divorce, and even the removal of children from their homes. Researchers estimate that more than 90 percent of low-income people receive inadequate or no legal assistance for their civil legal problems, meaning they often face powerful and resourced opponents. The justice gap, the vast disparity between the civil legal needs of low-income individuals and the resources available to meet them, has become a chasm. Generative artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to narrow the justice gap by helping people understand their rights, the law, and how to represent themselves more effectively in court. But AI also presents risks to individuals and the legal system itself.

This course covers the current state of access to justice and how courts intersect with AI usage in the context of law. Further discussion will cover the risks and benefits of AI, such as incorrect and biased outputs, along with ethical considerations versus improved access and efficiency in legal knowledge. Finally, attendees will cover the guardrails that are essential to ensuring that AI increases access to justice.

This program is designed for attorneys with less experience and knowledge in artificial intelligence and interested in its impact on the legal field.

Learning Objectives:

1. Explore the meaning of access to justice, the current access to justice gap, and possible ways to address it.
2. Assess how AI is being used in the legal system today, including by judges and courts, attorneys, and self-represented litigants.
3. Examine the potential risks and benefits of AI use in the courts, with a particular focus on how AI could impact the justice gap.
4. Evaluate guardrails that are in place—or should be in place—to minimize the limits and risks of AI and to maximize its benefits for increasing access to justice.