Diversity by Design: Improving Access to Justice in Online Courts with Adaptive Court Interfaces

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-152
Author(s):  
Ayelet Sela
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Relationship ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Choice Architecture ◽  
Diverse Population ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
New Strategy ◽  
Unique Nature ◽  
Demographic Attributes ◽  
Improve Access ◽  
Final Disposition

Abstract Recent years have seen the emergence of online courts and tribunals: digital platforms that enable self-represented litigants (SRLs) to complete electronically the entire court (or tribunal) process, from filing through final disposition. This article proposes that the unique nature of online courts as digital interfaces enables them to implement a new strategy—diversity by design—to improve access to justice and procedural justice for a diverse population of SRLs. Reflecting a human-centered legal design approach, and building on research in human-computer interaction and digital choice architecture, this strategy entails embedding diversity accommodating features in the technological design of court platforms. Specifically, building on the empirical relationship between users’ demographic attributes and their digital usability and aesthetics judgments, this article suggests that online courts can dynamically adapt their interfaces according to the attributes of a given user in ways that help diverse SRLs engage with online courts, support their effective participation in proceedings, and improve their procedural experiences. The potential impacts include enhancing SRLs’ confidence and trust in using online courts and ameliorating their ability to process information, deliberate, make informed decisions and communicate them. Finally, the article discusses concerns regarding the desirability and ethicality of dynamically adapting, that is—personalizing, court interfaces.

scholarly journals Judicial Dispute Resolution in Canada: Towards Accessible Dispute Resolution

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 433-462
Author(s):  
Archie Zariski
Keyword(s):  
Dispute Resolution ◽  
Essential Element ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Civil Litigation ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Complex Time ◽  
Judicial Intervention ◽  
Two Stages ◽  
Improve Access ◽  
Final Disposition

This article argues that access to judges is an essential element of access to justice. Traditional civil litigation procedure aimed at preparation for trial that is complex, time-consuming and costly obstructs such access, especially for litigants without lawyers. To remedy this, the author proposes a summary judicial dispute resolution procedure comprising two stages: early judicial intervention followed by judicial dispute resolution that is determinative if necessary. At both points litigants would be given the opportunity to settle their dispute consensually, thus combining principles of self-determination with final disposition according to law. The proposal draws on and extends contemporary innovations in Canadian courts concerning summary proceedings and binding judicial dispute resolution. The new procedure should improve access to judges and thus access to justice.

scholarly journals Aligning policy and law? The creation of a domestic abuse offence incorporating coercive control

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michele Burman ◽  
Oona Brooks-Hay
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Domestic Abuse ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Coercive Control ◽  
New Strategy ◽  
Scottish Government ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
First Time ◽  
Criminal Justice Response

Since 2000, the Scottish Government has adopted a gendered definition of domestic abuse which explicitly positions it as both a cause and a consequence of gender inequality. Following the launch of a new strategy to prevent and eradicate violence against women and girls, the Scottish Government announced proposals to create, for the first time, a bespoke offence of domestic abuse, designed to encompass the spectrum of abusive acts that constitute domestic abuse, including emotional and psychological abuse. The new offence is intended to better reflect the experience of victims subject to coercive control, improve the criminal justice response and facilitate access to justice. It represents one of the most radical attempts yet to align the criminal justice response with contemporary policy and feminist conceptual understanding of domestic abuse as a form of coercive control. Drawing on feminist scholarship which has interrogated the value of law reform, we critically assess the scope of the legislation, the likely challenges associated with its use in the Scottish context, and the potential for unintended consequences.

scholarly journals Neighborhood “Choice Architecture”: A New Strategy for Lower-Emissions Urban Planning?

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-127
Author(s):  
Michael W. Mehaffy
Keyword(s):  
Behavioral Economics ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Choice Architecture ◽  
Neighborhood Structure ◽  
Preliminary Assessment ◽  
Consumer Decisions ◽  
New Strategy ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
Neighborhood Scale ◽  
Neighborhood Choice

Recent advances in the field of behavioral economics offer intriguing insights into the ways that consumer decisions are influenced and may be influenced more deliberately to better meet community-wide and democratic goals. We demonstrate that these insights open a door to urban planners who may thereby develop strategies to alter urban-scale consumption behaviors that may significantly reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per capita. We first hypothesize that it is possible, through feasible changes in neighborhood structure, to alter the “choice architecture” of neighborhoods in order to achieve meaningful GHG reductions. We then formulate a number of elements of “choice architecture” that may be applied as tools at the neighborhood scale. We examine several neighborhoods that demonstrate variations in these elements, and from known inventories, we generate a preliminary assessment of the possible magnitude of GHG reductions that may be available. Although we acknowledge many remaining challenges, we conclude that “neighborhood choice architecture” offers a promising new strategy meriting further research and development.

scholarly journals Pre-recorded expert evidence in intimate partner violence cases

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Chin
Keyword(s):  
Intimate Partner Violence ◽  
Partner Violence ◽  
Intimate Partner ◽  
Abusive Relationships ◽  
General Nature ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Expert Evidence ◽  
Criminal Trials ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
Improve Access

This article makes a case for pre-recorded, modularized expert evidence as a way to improve access to justice in some intimate partner violence (IPV) cases. Knowledge about the effects and dynamics of IPV regularly plays an important role in criminal trials. This knowledge is often beyond the ken of the factfinder, and thus can provide important context for the case facts. It may also assist in disabusing misconceptions surrounding IPV. Despite the potential value of this knowledge, several rules of evidence and the general nature of the Anglo-American trial process make it difficult to tender such evidence. For instance, trials prefer live testimony of expert witnesses over other means of conveying exogenous knowledge. These limitations place impecunious parties in regional areas at a disadvantage because they may struggle to find qualified experts. As a result, cross-examined pre-recorded modules about IPV (e.g., factors that prevent individuals from leaving abusive relationships, IPV as coercive control) may be helpful in some cases.

scholarly journals The Right to Civil Counsel

Daedalus ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 148 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tonya L. Brito
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Basic Needs ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
New Right ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Legal Problem ◽  
Legal Process ◽  
The Right ◽  
Improve Access ◽  
The U.S

The U.S. Constitution grants no categorical right to counsel in civil cases. Undaunted, the legal profession's renewed effort to improve access to justice for low-income unrepresented civil litigants includes a movement to establish this right. How this right is implemented turns out to be as important as whether such a right exists. To be effective, any new right must be national in scope, adequately funded, and protected from political influence. Lawyers must be available early and often in the legal process, so that they can provide assistance for the full scope of their client's legal problem and prevent further legal troubles. A right to civil counsel should encompass proceedings where basic needs are at stake, and not be influenced by inadequately informed judgments of who is worthy of representation.

scholarly journals A proposal for a Global Ombudsman Service

Amicus Curiae ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 2-9
Author(s):  
Justin Malbon
Keyword(s):  
Law School ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Consumer Complaints ◽  
Improve Access

In this article Professor Justin Malbon (Monash Law School, University of Monash, Australia) proposes the establishment of a Global Industries Ombudsman Service (GIOS) to improve access to justice for those adversely affected by a (global) corporation’s production or investment activities. The proposed GIOS would be roughly modelled on the industry funded consumer complaints ombudsman services that have successfully operated in many jurisdictions for decades. Under the GIOS the parties entitled to lodge a complaint would be those alleging harm being caused by a corporation’s production or investment activities, and not consumers.

Extending the Discourse of Screendance

2016 ◽  
pp. 388-420
Author(s):  
Andrea Davidson
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Digital Processing ◽  
The Body ◽  
Primary Role ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
Modes Of Representation ◽  
Aesthetic Form ◽  
New Strategy ◽  
And Performance

Over the past twenty years, new choreographic forms have emerged that involve digital processing for their conception, fabrication, and presentation. These new practices are introducing modes of discourse that call into question the ways that choreography, the body, and performance are traditionally viewed and understood; the terms "digital dance" and "dance and new media" reference choreographic models which follow new aesthetic paradigms affecting their modes of representation, enunciation, narratology, composition, and reception. This chapter identifies the primary role of the computer as a metamedium; mediation as a form of non-matrixed representation and new strategy of performativity; new media as digital “stages” highlighting perceptual experience and spectatorial participation; and digital logic as introducing new modes of composition. Analyzing a spectrum of digital platforms including interactive installations, immersive sensory environments, networked performances, and wearable technologies, the chapter considers these interfaces as new viewing/sensing devices that reveal perspective as an aesthetic form and dramaturgical strategy.

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