Talk Justice, an LSC Podcast: Can Tech Simplify Pro Bono?
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Carl Rauscher
Director of Communications and Media Relations
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WASHINGTON—Legal experts discuss their projects that leverage technology to improve pro bono services on the latest episode of LSC’s “Talk Justice” podcast, released today. Host Cat Moon is joined by Linda Seely, pro bono counsel at Butler Snow, and Zac Oswald, senior deputy director of client services at Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands.
Seely and Oswald share the impactful tech projects they have contributed to, and the struggles and successes of getting volunteer lawyers to engage with tech tools.
Seely has seen great success from a project that allows people with medical debt from Chattanooga’s Erlanger Hospital to engage in alternative dispute resolution fully online. This is done with the help of a volunteer mediator. A previous Talk Justice episode took a deeper look at this pilot project. Seely hopes to see more movement in the direction of online court services.
“I'd really like to see if perhaps the Administrative Office of the Courts could push some of these judges to be a little more amenable to taking the court system more online,” says Seely. “I mean, there's still some rural areas where there's not electronic filing.”
Oswald’s project at Legal Aid Society uses automation and AI to handle record expungements more efficiently. Through the combined use of ChatGPT, Microsoft Excel and the automation software Zapier, Oswald says that petitions for 20 different charges on a client’s record could be created in just a few minutes.
“What we have created to help with people who are coming out of incarceration is an AI model that allows us to quickly go through and create expungement petitions,” says Oswald. “It takes longer for the clients to sign the petitions than it actually does for us to generate them—it's really, really excellent.”
A recent one-day expungement clinic which made use of this automation resulted in 187 record expungements and had $531,000 in court costs waived. Oswald explains that being able to tell pro bono attorneys that their help had such a big impact is key to keeping volunteers engaged.
Oswald says that another major benefit of leveraging tech for pro bono is that it helps nervous volunteers feel more equipped to assist with legal problems that they don’t have much experience with. It also cuts down on the paperwork, giving volunteers more time for meaningful client interactions that make the experience fulfilling.
Seely agrees that technology can really help improve pro bono service delivery, both for the attorney and the client. However, she says that getting lawyers to adopt technology can be challenging.
“There's so many options and opportunities for volunteer attorneys to step in and help to make the process just a little bit easier for people if they just adopt some of the technology that's out there,” Seely says. “I think adoption on the part of the legal profession is the hardest thing, quite frankly,” Seely continues.
Talk Justice episodes are available online and on Spotify, Apple and YouTube. The podcast is sponsored by LSC’s Leaders Council.