Best Practices in the Use of Technology to Facilitate Access to Justice Initiatives

The Cyberlaw Clinic undertook this study to help the Massachusetts Trial Court work toward a comprehensive, holistic strategic plan for maximizing technology’s role in the Access to Justice Initiative.

In this project, the Clinic's aim has been to examine available technologies, review existing uses of these technologies by other courts and legal aid organizations, develop case studies that distill the lessons of those prior experiences, and recommend both general approaches and specific, detailed implementations to take the maximum advantage of the leverage that technology can provide. By reviewing a variety of technological solutions and critically assessing prior examples, the Clinic aims to describe an integrated set of tools, techniques and resources that will provide a robust framework for developing and deploying comprehensive, cost effective access to justice technologies going forward.

This Report represents the first of what the Clinic expects will be several iterative summaries of the information we collect and analyze and the best practices and implementation lessons we develop from that information.