McDonald on Client-Centered Innovation in Access to Justice

Sean Martin McDonald, JD, MA, of FrontlineSMS and FrontlineSMS:Legal has posted The Future of Law is No Field of Dreams, at the Innovating Justice Blog.

He writes:

By including user input in the evolution of legal services, we can overcome the practical barriers to access, reaching billions of new clients and fulfilling the promises of equality made in our constitutions, treaties, and oaths.

For more information, please see the complete post.

Mr. McDonald discusses this topic at greater length in his VoxPopuLII post entitled Law in the Last-Mile: The Potential of Mobile Integration into Legal Services.

New on VoxPopuLII: McDonald on Law in the Last-Mile: The Potential of Mobile Integration into Legal Services

Sean Martin McDonald, JD, MA, of FrontlineSMS and FrontlineSMS:Legal has posted Law in the Last-Mile: The Potential of Mobile Integration into Legal Services, on the VoxPopuLII blog, published by the Legal Information Institute at Cornell University Law School.

In this post, Mr. McDonald describes the obstacles preventing many people in developing countries from accessing legal services. He then argues that new technologies, based on text messaging via mobile phones, can overcome many of these obstacles and substantially improve access to justice for low-income persons. He describes one such technology, FrontlineSMS:Legal, which uses text messaging to improve legal client intake and referral, client and case management, and caseload allocation functions for organizations offering legal services to individuals in developing nations.

This post should be of interest to the access-to-justice community, the information and communication technology for development (ICT4D) community, developers of mobile technology, and the legal technology community.

Whittal on Using Mobile Phones for Land Registries for the Urban Poor

Professor Dr. Jennifer Whittal of the University of Cape Town School of Architecture, Planning, and Geomatics has published The Potential Use of Cellular Phone Technology in Maintaining an Up-To-Date Register of Land Transactions for the Urban Poor, Potchefstroom Electronic Law Journal / Potchefstroom Elektroniese Regstydskrif, 14 (3), 162-194 (2011). Here is the abstract:

This article investigates the concept of using cell-phone technology for obtaining information about unofficial (off-register) transfers in land as are commonly undertaken by the urban poor in South Africa. Since the introduction of social housing programmes in South Africa after the democratic elections in 1994, mass land distribution and housing projects have been undertaken. Formal transfer of these properties has been discouraged by policy (such as a moratorium on transfers for a period of years), and the inaccessibility of land professionals and formal processes to the poor. From the disuse of formal transfer mechanisms one can conclude that these fail, at least in part, to meet the needs of this segment of society. Cell- (mobile) phone technology penetrates urban poverty more than other interactive technologies such as the internet, largely due to the lack of access to computers and the ‘digital divide’. The aim of this article is exploratory. It investigates the potential use of cell-phone technology as a means to inform authorities that a transfer of property has taken place informally or semi-formally. Such information could pave the way for a process of formal registration and hence aid the upkeep of the deeds registration system. Research into the potential use of the cell-phone as an information and communication technology (ICT) tool of land administration, particularly in the developing world, is undertaken. It is envisaged that a more detailed investigation will follow, which will include an analysis of organisational and legislative capacity. Further study in which the use of cell-phone technology in land administration is tested, taking into consideration structural/organisational factors as well as socio-economic and cultural factors and motivating factors for use, may be required.

HT @jcdonner.

Open, Generative, and User Centered: The Potential of SMS-Based Legal Technology for Development

My new article, entitled Open, Generative, and User Centered: The Potential of SMS-Based Legal Technology for Development, has been published in Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization, 6(1), 63-68 (2011), doi: 10.1162/INOV_a_00058. (Click here for an open access version of the article.) Here is a summary:

For those desiring to create user-centered means of improving access to justice for low-income citizens of developing countries, SMS-based systems seem extremely promising. Development of such systems seems consistent with several trends in legal technology, including the unbundling of legal services, the empowering of legal clients, the prioritizing of citizens’ legal information needs and access capabilities in the design process, and the use of open source software. Further, legal-practice systems rooted in text-message technology could be extended to encompass a range of innovative law-related services and functions, including interactive document creation, e-filing of court documents, information retrieval, survey data collection, and online conferral with non-lawyers who possess relevant legal knowledge. By “meet[ing clients] where they are” and cultivating open systems, developers of open-source, SMS-based legal technologies such as mLegal exhibit great potential to enhance access to justice for low-income individuals in developing nations.

The article is a response to: Sean McDonald, Esq., The Case for mLegal, Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization, 6(1), 41-62 (2011), doi: 10.1162/INOV_a_00057 (Click here for open access version). Many thanks to Sean for the opportunity to contribute this article.

McDonald on mLegal: Mobile Legal Technology for Developing Nations

Sean Martin McDonald, Esq., of Frontline SMS and Frontline SMS: Legal, has published The Case for mLegal, Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization, 6(1), 41-62 (2011), doi: 10.1162/INOV_a_00057. (Click here for an open access version of the article.) Here is a summary:

While there are a number of obstacles [facing citizens of developing countries] to accessing legal systems, many of them are the result of barriers to communication. SMS is the world’s cheapest, most ubiquitous data communications platform, in large part, because it overcomes many of these barriers. Through simple pieces of open-source software, legal service providers could use SMS interfaces to keep digital records, conduct basic remote intake, and improve client management, reducing costs at a time when every cent counts. This article is an exploration of the potential role of mobile technologies in the extension and improvement of the rule of law.

Click here for Sean’s post about the article, on the Frontline SMS: Legal blog.

Yates & Shapiro, Establishing a Sustainable Legal Information System in a Developing Country: A Practical Guide

Professor Dr. Kenneth A. Yates of University of Southern California Rossier School of Education and Charles E. Shapiro have published Establishing a Sustainable Legal Information System in a Developing Country: A Practical Guide, Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries, v. 42, article no. 8 (2010). Here is the abstract:

In this paper, a practical systems analysis approach is described for the planning, development and implementation of the information technology required to have a sustainable legal information system in a developing country. Considerations involved to create, compile and distribute the country’s governing laws in electronic form are described. Alternative database search and retrieval options are discussed, as well as issues relating to distribution of the database online, on local media, or on both. Based on a reasonable set of assumptions and general requirements for a developing country, a model legal information system is then presented. By using the approach suggested in this paper, a developing country can fully evaluate the cost-benefit tradeoffs, as well as all other tradeoffs, in determining the most appropriate information technology to use for the creation, compilation, and distribution of its laws in electronic form.