From the 2001 CALI Conference for Law School Computing
Under the umbrella of the Justice Web Collaboratory (JWC), students at Chicago-Kent are working on several different initiatives aimed at improving access to justice through technology. The JWC is a partnership launched by Chicago-Kent College of Law and the National Center for State Courts to use web technology to improve the US justice system. Its first key web site was Judgelink.org, a secure site with public information and a private, judges only discussion and chat area. For the past year teams of law students and graduate design students from the IIT Institute of Design have been doing ethnographic studies of courts in 5 jurisdictions aimed at understanding the customer perspective of those who seek judicial services without the aid of an attorney. Last semester the teams of law and design students proposed 53 solutions as system elements in their Access to Justice Project. In
another project funded by the Illinois Lawyers Trust Fund and the Chicago Bar Foundation, Chicago-Kent is building the single web portal to support all legal aid, pro bono and pro se services in the state of Illinois. These projects make a vital and path breaking contribution to the justice system and simultaneously involve students in learning the most advanced technology for supporting legal services and law practice.
Ronald W. Staudt
Professor of Law and Associate Vice President for Law, Business and Technology
Chicago-Kent College of Law
