Digital Inequalities and Access to Justice: Dialing into Zoom Court Unrepresented

Abstract

This chapter explores how virtual proceedings actually unfold for low-income persons in the everyday and serve to construct their status as pro se litigants. To date, much of the conversation has lauded Zoom court proceedings as the future of access to justice, often centering this praise on idealized and optimistic forms of online proceedings, despite persistent and pressing digital divides. In a marked departure, this chapter will examine how these new technologies actually affect the experiences of low-income unrepresented persons. We do so by presenting worrying findings from an ongoing empirical project examining the experience of pro se litigants in Indiana’s courts. We then then link those findings to new theories of psychology about how pro se litigants perform their pro se status. The chapter closes by crafting a path forward for virtual court proceedings that can capture some of the efficiency and other benefits of the online migration without harming the very demographic remote proceedings purport to serve.