JUSTICE AND TECHNOLOGY PRACTICUM (Staudt, Chicago-Kent College of Law)
Students explore access to justice issues, including the use of technology in law practice and legal services, alternative legal services delivery models, e-lawyering, unbundling and pro se litigant assistance. Class meets for once each week to discuss assigned readings on these topics. Additionally, students work on client service and drafting projects with the Center for Access to Justice & Technology (CAJT), whose mission is to provide low-income individuals with greater access to the legal system through the use of internet technology. The practicum provides students with experience in assisting self-represented litigants and providing legal information to low-income individuals. Students also draft automated court forms and instructions for pro se litigants and the public. A variety of legal topics are available for student projects, including landlord/tenant, domestic relations and consumer rights. These drafting projects include the following activities: researching, drafting, and editing web-based legal education materials and legal forms with instructions for the public, and developing plain language user interfaces for web-based document assembly. Some audio/video production may be used in creating these materials. Students are not required to have prior technical training beyond normal computer familiarity with word processing.

ACCESS TO JUSTICE AND TECHNOLOGY SEMINAR
(Staudt, Chicago-Kent College of Law)
Studies repeatedly demonstrate that 80% of the legal needs of the poor in the United States remain unmet, despite existing federal, state, and volunteer programs that provide some civil legal services to low income people. This seminar course explores the parallel problems of lack of access to legal services by low income people, on the one hand, and the flood of under-represented litigants appearing before state and federal courts on the other. Barriers to access to the justice system are examined and various solutions explored with special emphasis on the potential of the Internet and related technologies to improve access to justice. Students visit courts and legal services offices to observe our current justice system in action. Students are also encouraged to write papers that explore innovative approaches to increasing access to justice.