The longstanding concern that justice often favors those who can afford it, while excluding those who cannot, remains a deeply embedded issue in the legal system. The ideal of pro bono publico, urging legal professionals to serve the public good, continues to inspire efforts aimed at making justice more accessible for everyone.
In 2014, U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg emphasized this obligation by noting that the privilege of practicing law comes with a duty to assist those who lack the financial means for legal representation. Despite this moral imperative, offering free or very low-cost legal services remains a difficult and ongoing challenge.
One such initiative addressing this issue is the Free Access to Law Movement (FALM), a global coalition of legal information projects striving to make resources like case law, legislation, and legal scholarship freely available online. The movement originated in 1992 through the efforts of the Legal Information Institute (LII) at Cornell Law School, co-founded by Thomas Bruce and Peter Martin.
Additionally, the U.S. government supports access to justice through platforms like usa.gov/legal-aid, which helps people find free or low-cost legal assistance.
Legal services can generally be divided into two parts: legal information and legal advice. While access to legal information is important, it is often not enough without expert guidance to interpret and act on it. Legal professionals use information to form advice, and even when advice is offered for free, obtaining accurate and comprehensive legal information can still incur costs.
This is where the advancement of information technology becomes significant. The digital age has made information more accessible than ever, allowing users to find legal resources through devices like smartphones and computers. However, the labor-intensive nature of providing legal advice continues to keep it costly, and pro bono efforts, while commendable, cannot fully meet the growing demand.
Technology is now beginning to address this gap on the legal advice side as well. Jason Solomon, Executive Director of the Stanford Center on the Legal Profession, advocates for the development of legal tools akin to TurboTax—applications that combine legal information and guidance in a user-friendly format. Although such tools are in development, legal restrictions on ownership and who can provide consumer legal advice remain significant hurdles.
California, for example, is examining the rules around digital legal service delivery. Solomon warns that progress must be swift to prevent serious consequences, such as denied unemployment claims, underserved minority-owned businesses, and wrongful evictions.
Research in the intersection of artificial intelligence and the legal field is intensifying, with the goal of making legal advice more automatable. Technologies like Machine Learning and Deep Learning are being explored as powerful allies for lawyers, judges, and the judicial system overall. For deeper insights, refer to the book AI and Legal Reasoning Essentials.
Promising AI initiatives, such as the DataLex platform, show how AI can support free legal advice systems. A study by Andrew Mowbray, Philip Chung, and Graham Greenleaf explored how limitations tied to offering free services influence what is sustainable and how organizations like Legal Information Institutes can support these initiatives.
In conclusion, AI’s role in legal reasoning could reduce the reliance on human labor to provide legal advice. Rather than replacing attorneys, AI could assist them, handling much of the technical work and allowing lawyers to focus on oversight. While AI won’t instantly make legal services free, it increases the likelihood of making affordable—and possibly free—legal aid more widely available in the future.
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