Justice Tech

Abstract

Should the law regulate how digital platforms connect and foster communication among lawyers and consumers? Or should the law leave digital platform innovators free to explore their unique capabilities? The greater the regulation of digital platforms for legal services, the less access to legal services but the more alignment with legal ethics and professional responsibility codes. The less the regulation of digital platforms for legal services, the more the incentive to produce connectivity and communication between lawyers and consumers. This Article assesses how digital platforms for legal services drive innovation for access to justice⁠⁠‍—‍termed “Justice Tech”‍—‍and promote lawyer‑consumer matching, engagement, and interaction. Recent scholarship highlights the adoption, growth, and transformation of service industries (such as transportation, homestays, and telemedicine) through online and app‑based marketplaces while simultaneously cautioning about exploitative conduct and arguing for consumer protection. Digital platforms for legal services are a new phenomenon for digital portals that operate between the supply and demand sides of marketplaces to make access and exchange cheaper, easier, and more scalable while also presenting unique challenges with legal ethics and professional responsibility codes. These digital platforms can play a critical role in matching consumers’ legal needs with lawyers’ expertise, thus helping to promote access to justice. However, these platforms have tradeoffs.

The debates about professional regulation of lawyers and digital platforms present policy choice tradeoffs and have been polarized around market‑driven and consumer‑protection‑driven approaches. In synthesizing these previously disconnected debates, this Article argues that the challenges to accessible legal services and protection of consumers through digital platform control are intertwined with the advent of digital platforms for legal services and the assessment of legal ethics and professional responsibility in their use. By studying the issues, implications, and regulation of digital platforms for legal services, this Article makes three major contributions by: (1) assessing the degree to which digital platforms promote access to justice and raise new duties for lawyers; (2) showing that digital platforms for legal services may drive concerns with potential restrictions on advertising, unauthorized practice of law, and referrals; and (3) suggesting that co‑regulation offers a way for the legal profession to serve public interests while complying with the legal profession’s objectives and increasing access to justice.

Keywords: Justice Tech, access to justice, justice-as-a-platform, digital platform, digital platform for legal services, innovation, professional responsibility, legal ethics, legal services, advertising, unauthorized practice of law, lawyer referrals, co-regulation, self-regulation, regulation, lawyers, consumers, market, marketplace, app, American Bar Association, ABA