Public legal education and technology
Public legal education and technology are two increasingly important areas of focus in the legal field. Public legal education involves educating individuals about their legal rights and responsibilities, as well as providing information about the legal system and how it works. Technology, on the other hand, has revolutionised the way legal services are delivered, making them more accessible and affordable to the public.
By combining public legal education and technology, we can begin to explore innovative tools and resources that may help individuals navigate legal issues with greater ease and confidence. This might include online legal clinics, self-help resources, or AI chatbots that can answer common legal questions.
The intersection of public legal education and technology has the potential to democratise access to justice, empowering individuals to better understand their legal rights and access the resources they need to resolve legal issues. As technology continues to evolve, so too will the opportunities to leverage it in the service of public legal education.
Applications for the internet of public legal education
In this article from 2002, Lois Gander from the University of Alberta in Canada argues that the internet, by removing barriers between the public and the law, is one of the most significant forces of change in the approach to public legal education.
Online and in the Know? Public Legal Education, Young People and the Internet
Catrina Denvir’s article of 2016 looks at how, over the last decade, the Internet has played a growing role in the resolution strategies of many of those who face civil justice problems. Drawing on data from a novel experiment capturing the online information-seeking behaviours of 208 students, this paper explores how young people in England use the Internet when faced with a hypothetical civil justice problem relating to housing or employment law. The study finds that while the Internet holds potential as a Public Legal Education (PLE) tool, exposure to online legal information does not directly equate to improved knowledge of rights or knowledge of how to handle a civil justice problem. The Internet's utility in this respect, continues to be constrained by the quality of information provided and the public's capacity to use it and apply it in a meaningful way.
The end of lawyers? Rethinking the nature of legal services
In this influential book from 2008 Richard Susskind argues that in a just society, access to justice should be extended to include legal guidance and legal health promotion - legal insight should be at everyone's fingertips.
Susskind argues that access to justice is as much about dispute avoidance as it about dispute resolution. Just as lawyers are themselves able, because of their training and experience, to recognise and avoid legal pitfalls, in a just society - one in which legal insight is an evenly distributed resource - non-lawyers would be similarly forewarned.