The Face of Legal Technology in 2018 (and What it Means for the Future of Access to Justice) By Kristen Sonday, Paladin Updated: May 8, 2018.
“Introduction – In recent years, a curious paradox has emerged: There is far more legal technology being built than ever before, yet somehow, the access to justice (ATJ) gap in America keeps widening. In an age of natural disasters, politically charged immigration measures, an opioid epidemic (for which the Legal Services Corporation recently created a task force) and a housing emergency, the United States is facing a bona fide ATJ crisis. Right now, a whopping 86% of low-income Americans who need legal assistance never receive it—a shocking statistic that disproportionately affects women, immigrants, and minorities…Employing the first ever data-driven analysis of legaltech companies and their founders, I present two crucial (and until now, anecdotal) root causes:
1. Lack of representation from diverse communities within legaltech; and
2. Lack of focus by legaltech on problems that affect access to justice…”