Speakers on the "Access to Justice: Substantial Challenges and How You, the Law and Technology Can Help" Legalweek panel questioned if the Rule of Professional Conduct banning unauthorized practice of law was harming access to justice in the U.S.

"The rules about the unauthorized practice of law is intended to protect consumers," said James Sandman, president of the Legal Services Corp. "In the interest of protecting consumers we've consigned too many to no help at all. The need of a lawyer can be a barrier of justice if you can't afford one."

Maura Grossman, a University of Waterloo professor in Ontario, Canada, said the measure may be self-serving. "People say it's to protect the people but I'm not convinced it's more to protect the lawyers than the public," she said.

Sandman called a recently formed task force in California, set to study if the unauthorized practice of law prohibition affects access to justice, "revolutionary."

As lawyers nationwide toil with that ethical question, legal technology is being accessed by low-income individuals across the nation.

Kiosks in U.S. courthouses are providing access to basic information regarding common legal issues for low-income people, Sandman said. Still, such innovations have received blowback from attorneys.

"They see these efforts as antagonistic," said U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez of the Western District of Texas.

Rodriguez said he tells worried attorneys "this is not an additional effort to exterminate you from practice."

He noted that courtroom kiosks and similar tools allow attorneys to focus on more complex legal matters.

Sandman, a former Arnold & Porter partner, said attorneys aren't losing customers because of such legal tech geared toward the access to justice.

"There's no lost job business opportunity. I think the real concern is that these tools will be of assistance to people who can afford attorneys. … I think the real concern might not be with low-income people but people of moderate incomes where they might be on the line of self-help and being able to afford an attorney."

To be sure, not all legal matters can be solved with legal technology, as some litigation requires human decisions, Grossman added. But technology still does provide a lot of help to some.

"I do think technology won't help with all of it, but for people who have nothing and no service, to go online and use some technology to assess where they have a claim; or what the law is in a particular place; or have a decision tree that will walk them through the various steps," it will help, Grossman said.