ABSTRACT
This article highlights the extraordinary potential of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and the extraordinary risks it poses in the context of promoting access to justice. Here, ‘access to justice’ means any practice that helps litigants, especially in the nation’s civil courts, resolve their legal matters with minimal or no formal attorney representation. It also include efforts that help potential litigants avoid having to invoke the legal system in the first place as well as ways in which courts and other stakeholders can improve the legal system to better serve the public. The article starts by outlining generative AI’s most promising features, recognizing that generative AI is so new that it is hard to offer more than a tabletop exercise of how it might enhance access to justice. It then addresses concerns about using generative AI to advance such access and assist self-represented litigants. Finally, the article discusses how to measure the success of using generative AI to bridge the justice gap. It concludes by noting that great care is needed in using generative AI to enhance access to justice, ensure its long-term success, and address a host of valid concerns.
Griffin, Christopher L and Laskowski, Casandra and Thumma, Samuel, How to Harness AI for Justice: A Preliminary Agenda for Using Generative AI to Improve Access to Justice (June 11, 2024), 108 Judicature 42 (2024).
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