Generative AI and Legal Aid: Results from a Field Study and 100 Use Cases to Bridge the Access to Justice Gap

Abstract

How can AI tools be used to address the access to justice gap - the 90% of low-income Americans that lack adequate legal assistance? We conducted the first ever field study of lawyers using generative AI tools and a companion survey of 202 individuals to find out. 91 legal aid professionals were given free access to paid generative artificial intelligence tools, a subset of which, chosen randomly, were provided “concierge” services including peer use cases, office hours, and assistance. Before the trial, women in the pilot were much less likely to be using the tools or think they were beneficial. At the end of the trial, the outcomes of men and women across a wide range of outcomes were not statistically distinguishable. Participants that received “concierge” services reported statistically significant better outcomes on a range of metrics as compared to the control group. Overall, 90% of pilot participants indicated some level of productivity increase and 75% of participants indicated their intention to continue using tools, despite continued concerns about the tools. We detail use cases across and discuss their implications for the wide justice gaps that exist, and how they may be narrowed. We release a companion database of 100 helpful use cases, including prompts and outputs, provided by legal aid professionals in the trial to support the use of tools by the legal aid community.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, AI, generative AI, ChatGPT, Access to Justice, Automation, Legal Profession, Empirical Studies

JEL Classification: C10, K14, K4