UX Design: Bridging the Access to Justice gap for self-represented litigants

UX Design, as a subset of User-Centred Design (UCD), seeks to meaningfully enhance a user’s interactive experience with a product, service, process or system focussing on product development areas like usability and functionality.

Self-represented litigants often face formidable barriers in navigating traditional justice systems due, among other things, to their unfamiliarity with court rules and procedures. This has created an access to justice gap for self-represented litigants within traditional justice systems.

UX-Design presents a user-centred, user-friendly solution. Indeed, by prioritizing the needs and pain points of self-represented litigants in navigating traditional justice systems, UX Design holds tremendous promise for bridging the access to justice gap for this disadvantaged group. Moreover, Professor Richard Susskind’s conceptualization of a court as a service further underscores the potential of UX Design to increase access to justice for self-represented litigants. Crucially, UX Design can be leveraged to achieve this ambitious goal by:

1.     Encouraging the conduct of user research and testing aimed at identifying the specific challenges and pain points faced by self-represented litigants in accessing justice;

2.     Assisting with the creation of user-centred and user-friendly websites, online platforms, and mobile apps that simplify court rules, procedures and processes;

3.     Supporting the development of engaging educational material and legal literacy tools to demystify and break down complex legal concepts, court rules, procedures and processes;

4.     Enabling the implementation of feedback mechanisms for digital platforms that facilitate access to legal services, which will allow court users to report relevant issues and propose recommendations for improvement;

5.     Improving e-filing systems by making it easier for court users, and especially those who are self-represented, to file documents required for the initiation and progression of matters in court;

6.     Empowering self-represented court users in particular by supporting the implementation of mechanisms that enable them to track the status of their matter as it progresses through the justice system; and

7.     Supporting the optimization of scheduling and resource management strategies within the court system.

Whilst adopting a UX Design approach is not to be seen as panacea for self-represented litigants, leveraging its transformative potential may prove useful in fashioning a more accessible and just legal landscape. For self-represented litigants, creating well-designed user experiences can reduce confusion, inspire confidence in the administration of justice, and ensure that access to justice is not limited by their ability to navigate complex legal systems.