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This article first appeared in the print edition of Legaltech News, featured in the February's Corporate Counsel and The American Lawyer magazines, as “AI and Access to Justice.”

We are in a boom time for new legal technology ideas, companies and products, all driven largely by artificial intelligence. The past few months have seen countless posts and articles on new technology and how it helps law firms or corporate law departments by automating functions and predicting outcomes.

Those benefits, however, are not the most important uses of artificial intelligence. Far from it. Much more important is these tools' ability to help those in need access and use our legal system.

According to a June 2017 report from the Legal Services Corp., 86 percent of the civil legal problems reported by low-income Americans in the past year received inadequate or no legal help. Let's look at three startups that are trying to close the gap with new technology.

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Paladin

Early in her career, Paladin's co-founder and COO Kristen Sonday worked at the U.S. Department of Justice, focusing on international criminal affairs in Mexico and Central America. “From my work at the DOJ, I know that our system is so complicated it can be overwhelming and intimidating,” she says. Sonday later met Skadden litigator Felicity Conrad, who has performed human rights-related work in Africa and Asia. “Felicity and I got chatting about the access to justice gap and how it disproportionately affects women, minorities and immigrants, all of which describes both of us.”

Rule 6.1 of the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct states that “a lawyer should aspire to render at least 50 hours of pro bono public legal services per year.” However, according to a March 2013 ABA report, only 36 percent do so. According to Sonday, most lawyers are interested in giving back and want to do pro bono work, but less than 20 percent have the tools or infrastructure to do so in an efficient manner. Paladin set out to build a technology platform that helps teams to staff, manage, track and visualize their impact all in one place.

The company launched in January 2017 with a one-to-one model, but the founders quickly realized they could do more by focusing on corporations. “Many Fortune 500 companies have pro bono or corporate social responsibility programs, and even relationships on the ground, but no way to aggregate and assign case work in an intelligent way,” adds Sonday. “Our data-driven approach helps them get the right case to the right attorney.”

Most of the work is currently in immigration, women's rights and civil rights. Paladin's long-term vision is to launch a global pro bono network that uses artificial intelligence to smartly match clients and attorneys to increase engagement and improve outcomes, not only at corporations but also at law firms and law schools.

Reach out to Kristen Sonday on Twitter at @kristensonday and Paladin at @JoinPaladin or www.joinpaladin.com.

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Road to Status

Road to Status is an online platform that helps people file immigration applications. It works like Turbotax by asking questions and providing explainer text to help applicants respond, with attorney review or assistance when necessary.

The company was founded by Javad Khazaeli, who had been a prosecutor for the Immigration and Naturalization Service and later for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “I'd represent the government in immigration court,” says Khazaeli. I saw so many people who couldn't afford attorneys but who, with just a little bit of help, could have received the benefits to which they are legally entitled.”

Perhaps 15 percent of people who need it can afford competent immigration counsel. The poorest 10 percent get free legal services if they are in a part of the country where it exists. “The rest either tries to figure it out on their own, or they use a 'notario' who are not licensed and who often take advantage of their clients,” says Khazaeli. “Our aim is to help that middle 75 percent.”

If the user feels comfortable enough after filling out the questionnaire, he or she can print out their application and then get specific tailored instructions on where to mail it, what to include and how much to pay. Others choose to have an attorney review the application for an additional fee (ranging from $99 to $349), or the applicant can retain that attorney for full representation. Because these attorneys have no client acquisition costs, no data entry and key issues are already flagged, the work is still profitable for them while the clients get a big discount.

Khazaeli himself immigrated to the U.S. from Iran at age 2. He went into private practice to address this gap, officially launching Road to Status in June 2016 while remaining a practicing immigration attorney at Khazaeli Wyrsch in St. Louis.

Khazaeli also touts the tool's efficiency value for attorneys. “If we can make a good immigration attorney 20 percent more efficient, he or she can help 20 percent more people.”

Reach out to Javad Khazaeli on Twitter at @javadesq and Road to Status at @RoadToStatus or www.roadtostatus.com.

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HelpSelf Legal

Launched in December 2017, HelpSelf Legal provides legal automation for the types of tasks that are disproportionately needed by low- and moderate-income users. The service currently only assists with domestic violence restraining orders in California, but there are plans to add eviction defense, naturalization, expungements and juvenile record-sealing in other geographies.

Founder Dorna Moini did a lot of pro bono work as an associate at Sidley, much of it for victims of domestic violence. “It became apparent that the Legal Services Corp. was going to lose some of its already-insufficient funding, and at the same time there are so many technology resources in Silicon Valley, although not as many for those who need it most. I figured, if you could apply that technology, it could really make a difference.”

Users sign into the platform, enter basic information and pay $15. They are asked questions about themselves, the other party and, most importantly, the alleged abuse. Many of the questions are yes/no (“Are you in fear for your safety”) that turn into statements on the declaration (“I am in fear for my safety.”). Once done, the user can print and file the declaration, or the system will e-file it in certain jurisdictions. HelpSelf Legal is also licensing the software directly to legal aid organizations, who can provide it to all their clients free of charge.

Moini says, “I recently went to the self-help center at the San Francisco Superior Court, and there was a line out the door. Our goal is to make it easier for people, so they do not have to come to court, wait in line, arrange day care and time off work, and spend their whole day, when the same procedure can be done online. We're doing that by building a layperson-friendly way for people who can't afford a lawyer.”

Reach out to Dorna Moini on Twitter at @dorna_moini and HelpSelf Legal at @HelpSelfLegal or www.HelpSelfLegal.com.

In the corporate legal environment, the question is “How can we do more with less?” and new technology can help. But for many Americans, the question is “How can I do this at all?” and new technology has to help. Please support those building the tools that do.

Brad Blickstein is principal at the Blickstein Group and publisher of the Annual Law Department Operations Survey, now in its 10th year. For more information about the survey and more detailed results, please visit www.blicksteingroup.com/ldo.