Digital Technology and Justice

Justice Apps

Tania Sourdin, Jacqueline Meredith, Bin Li

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000286113
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Semantics
• Index: Computer Science

Justice apps – mobile and web-based programmes that can assist individuals with legal tasks – are being produced, improved, and accessed at an unprecedented rate. These technologies have the potential to reshape the justice system, improve access to justice, and demystify legal institutions. Using artificial intelligence techniques, apps can even facilitate the resolution of common legal disputes.

However, these opportunities must be assessed in light of the many challenges associated with app use in the justice sector. These include the digital divide and other accessibility issues; the ethical challenges raised by the dehumanisation of legal processes; and various privacy, security, and confidentiality risks.

Surveying the landscape of this emergent industry, this book explores the objectives, opportunities, and challenges presented by apps across all areas of the justice sector. Detailed consideration is also given to the use of justice apps in specific legal contexts, including the family law and criminal law sectors. The first book to engage with justice apps, this book will appeal to a wide range of legal scholars, students, practitioners, and policy-makers.

1 Introduction

Justice apps and justice

Over the past decade, there has been considerable growth in internet connectivity, online dispute resolution (‘ODR’), and the production and improvement of justice apps.¹ Justice apps are mobile and web-based resources intended to assist individuals with legal tasks.² In recent years, apps have become an increasingly popular way of accessing information and connecting to justice services. In 2017, there were almost 200 billion mobile app downloads,³ although only a small proportion of these apps related to the justice sector.⁴ Since 2017 there has, however, been a significant increase in the range and type of justice apps which can be oriented towards lawyers and other experts, as well as the general public.

Justice apps can make legal services easier to access, guide users through legal choices, and allow them to engage with self-help processes. More sophisticated legal ‘chatbot’ or ‘robolawyer’ apps can offer recommendations based on complex artificial intelligence (AI) techniques. This book’s primary aim is to explore the objectives, opportunities, and limitations of justice apps. Whilst the focus will be on justice apps broadly, detailed consideration is also given to their use in specific legal contexts, including the family law and criminal law sectors.

As early as 2012, in the analysis paper, Harnessing the Benefits of Technology to Improve Access to Justice, the Australian Government noted that:

The development of mobile software applications and optimised websites for use on mobile phones is increasingly becoming a necessity if an agency or organization wishes to have a strong online presence and increase their reach to the public, especially people in RRR areas which is very important for legal assistance. Given the current use of mobile media devices and the projected increase in the use of such devices to access information in the future, there will be an increase in expectations from the public that they will be able to access information through these devices and that this information will be current.⁵

In the years since 2012, justice apps have been developed, evolved, and extended to enable many people to access information about the justice system and, under some circumstances, support levels of engagement that were not contemplated a decade ago. At the same time, there has been little literature or research relating to these developments, with no research specifically focussed on justice apps. This book is directed at that omission and the authors note that such apps have the potential to reshape the justice sector in a number of critical ways. Given the proliferation of personal media devices and significant advances in technology over the past decade, the production, improvement, and uptake of justice apps will only continue to expand.

This book considers developments in a range of diverse jurisdictions, including Australia, the United States of America (the U.S.), and China. Whilst this is a rapidly developing area, the book’s focus is on the underling objectives, opportunities, and challenges presented by justice apps, meaning that the frameworks and approaches that are developed are of ongoing relevance into the future. In addition, the use of some case study material supports consideration of the issues that are likely to emerge in the justice app area over the coming decade.

The context within which justice apps are used

In general, and to place the emergence of justice apps within some context, Sourdin⁶ has previously noted that changing and emerging technologies have considerable relevance to the continuing evolution of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) processes and the justice system in general.⁷ Sourdin’s taxonomy suggests that there are three main and interlinked ways in which technology is reshaping justice systems, and justice apps can also be considered and analysed by using this taxonomy. First, and at the most basic level, technology can assist to inform, support, and advise people involved in justice activities (‘supportive technologies’). Second, technology can replace activities and functions that were previously carried out by humans (‘replacement technologies’). Finally, at a third level, technology can provide for very different forms of justice, particularly where processes change significantly (‘disruptive technologies’).⁸ Justice apps can fall within any of these three categories. Some apps can involve both ‘supportive’ and ‘replacement’ technologies, whilst others may have aspects that are ‘disruptive’.

Justice apps can target lawyers, the general public, and others.⁹ Apps targeting lawyers often promote more efficient legal service delivery and can assist to streamline legal research.¹⁰ Apps targeting the general public – sometimes termed ‘DTP’ (direct-to-public) apps¹¹ – can make legal services easier to access and allow users to engage with self-help processes.¹² Specifically, justice apps can help users identify if there is a legal issue, guide users through legal choices, assist with the drafting and filing of legal documents, and provide referrals to legal service providers.¹³ More sophisticated legal ‘chatbot’ or ‘robolawyer’ apps can offer recommendations or solutions based on conditional and causal decision logic trees, and in some cases, more advanced AI techniques.¹⁴

Although there is currently very limited research on the use of apps in the legal context, there is a substantial amount of domestic and international research exploring the use of technology in the justice sector more broadly. This includes research on the benefits and risks associated with ODR processes. More recent scholarship has also considered the impact of automation on governmental and administrative decision-making.¹⁵

Growth in apps and connectivity

As noted previously, the production and improvement of justice apps is an area of significant recent development. This is partly because apps may support those who are comfortable with smartphones and mobile devices but intimidated by, or unable to access, computers.¹⁶ Smartphones that enable apps are a relatively recent invention. Although some basic smartphones with limited operation were in use in the early part of the 21st century, it is only over the past decade that smartphones, which enable users to download or purchase apps from a centralised facility, make payments, use cloud storage and synchronise updates and app functions, have been adopted by a growing proportion of people in developed and developing countries.

Indeed, in 2020, mobile phones have become the dominant means by which people access the internet. For example, in terms of internet connectivity, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has noted that in 2016–2017, 87 percent of persons were internet users, with mobile or smartphones used by 91 percent of connected households.¹⁷ In 2018, there were approximately 27 million mobile handset subscribers in Australia.¹⁸ The number of mobile handset subscribers, and the volume of data they download with these devices, continues to grow. Globally, it is estimated that 62.6 percent of the world’s population, or 4.78 billion people, are mobile phones users in 2020.¹⁹

Much app development resulted from the establishment of third generation (‘3G’) mobile communication technologies in the early 2000s.²⁰ 3G development made smartphone technology possible, and consumers have increasingly made the switch. A 2018 report predicted that the rise in affordable data plans and the establishment of fifth generation (5G) network in Australia would result in the uptake of mobile devices as a primary entertainment (or content) ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Digital technology use in the justice sector
• 3 Justice apps – objectives and opportunities
• 4 Justice apps in context
• 5 Issues with justice apps
• 6 Future options
• Index