The SRLN Forms & Technology Working Group is holding its first ever Civil Legal Problems Forms Contest. There are two categories in the competition:
- Best Static Form
- Best Automated Form
This is a great opportunity to be part of an energizing conversation within the court and legal aid access community about how to make forms (both static and automated) much better.
Given the huge role of forms in ANY innovation, this really has to be seen as a foundational project for any access to justice improvement. To quote, in part, the Justice for All Guidance:
Twenty years of experience have taught us that it is almost impossible to deploy any innovation for court users without getting standardized forms in place. It has also taught us that the language and design of the forms are critical. Without such forms, self-help centers are only marginally useful, judges cannot know what questions to ask, and all but the most educated and confident litigants are effectively prevented from generating the documents that the rules require them to use.
As with all its components, the JFA Guidance includes a forms sufficiency assessment tools.
The Guidance also lists the following as the key elements of a full successful initiative:
- Implementation of standardized plain language forms
- Protocols for assessing and updating forms
- Testing for comprehensibility and usability
- Form data integration with the court information system
The deadlines for submissions for the competition is May 1, 2017, and link for submissions is here. Winners get a free registration to the nex SRLN Conference
Go to it, folks.
Richard Zorza's Access to Justice Blog 