Lawler et al.: Opportunities and Limitations in the Provision of Self-Help Legal Resources to Citizens in Need

Merran Lawler, LLB, JD, Professor Dr. Jeff Giddings, and Michael Robertson, all of Griffith University Law School, have published Opportunities and Limitations in the Provision of Self-Help Legal Resources to Citizens in Need, Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice, Vol. 30, No. 1, 2012.

Here is the abstract:

This article considers the utility of resources designed to assist people undertaking their own legal work. Four in-depth case studies are used to explore the tensions inherent in providing coherent and user-oriented resources to legal self-helpers in environments where service providers attempt to convey complex legal information, knowledge and skills to people at the point of legal exigency. The needs of the consumer for basic process oriented and solutions focused resources do not always coincide with the objectives of providers to impart sufficient legal knowledge, information and skills to allow the consumer to work through those processes as an informed citizen.

Abstracts and Archived Tweets for CLARITY 2012: Conference on Plain Language and Law

Abstracts, archived tweets (in .csv format), and the program are available, for CLARITY 2012: Conference on Plain Language and Law, which was held 21-23 May 2012, in Washington, DC.

The conference hashtag was #clarity2012.

The conference was co-hosted by Clarity, the international plain-legal language association; Scribes —- The American Society of Legal Writers; and the Center for Plain Language.

Kirchberger on Law as an App

Christine Kirchberger, Esq., LL.M., M.L.I.T., junior lecturer and doctoral candidate at Stockholm University Department of Law‘s Swedish Law and Informatics Research Institute (IRI), has posted Law as an App, on her blog entitled iinek’s blog.

The post was written in preparation for Ms. Kirchberger’s presentation at the conference, Juridiska tjänster via webben – drivkrafter och överväganden, held 15 November 2011 in Stockholm.

Click here for the presentation slides.

Here is an excerpt of the post:

[...] When we talk about law as a service or law as an app, we could start by discussing what law is. While legal theorists have done this for quite some time now, there is still no generally accepted answer. If we – more practically – assume that law is there for a purpose – the purpose of making society run smoothly and avoiding unbalance – one could assume that society should be aware of the law on a daily basis in order to allow it to run smoothly.

The ideal law app, therefore, tells a person in advance – proactively – if a legal problem is near and how to avoid it. This could be compared to a GPS navigator warning a car driver of a nearby traffic jam and suggesting alternative routes. Think about how many legal disputes could be prevented just by getting the right information/advice at the right time. [...]

For more information, please see the complete post.

The post is to some extent a response to Jason Wilson‘s post entitled I am Now an App.

For more information on Ms. Kirchberger’s research, please see her post at VoxPopuLII entitled, If the mountain will not come to the prophet, the prophet will go to the mountain.

Legal Services Corporation Technology Initiative Grants Conference

LSC TIG 2012: The Legal Services Corporation Technology Initiative Grants Conference, is being held 11-13 January 2012 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.

The conference features presentations about innovative applications of technology to improve access to justice.

Click here for the complete conference program.

The Twitter hashtag for the conference is #lsctig.