Introducing SoloSuit – LawX’s Effort to Alleviate the Debt Collection Crisis in Utah.

Debt Collection Crisis in Utah During the past five years, debt collectors have filed over 330,000 lawsuits in Utah. To put that into perspective, that’s more than every other case filing in the state combined. In fact, the ratio is nearly 2-1. Over 98% of those sued for a debt do not hire an attorney. […]

Origami and Design-Thinking in the Law

Engineering Design Lab I visited an engineering design lab this week to see how other design labs function. The experience was a revelation. The lab I visited was within the university where LawX will be housed (to be announced later this month). The head of the lab, an engineering professor, gave me a tour. The lab […]

When Crowdsourcing Works (And Doesn’t Work) In The Law

Crowdsourcing has revolutionized several industries. Wikipedia has replaced traditional encyclopedias. Stack Overflow houses the collective knowledge of software engineering. And genealogical information stretches back thousands of years. All due to crowdsourcing. These successes have led to several attempts to crowdsource the law. The potential is enticing. The law is notoriously difficult to access, especially for […]

The most important legal information in the nation is not publicly available.

State courts are arguably the most important courts in the nation. They hear more cases than federal courts by far. And very few state court cases are appealed. Even when cases are appealed, the reversal rate is low–around 7% in Utah. This means state courts decide the vast majority of the legal issues around the country. […]

How to download Google Scholar’s case database for free (up to 2013)

Jonathan Mayer is an under-appreciated figure in legal tech. I am not referring to the John Mayer that runs CALI (the Center for Computer Assisted Legal Instruction). Or the singer/songwriter John Mayer. This Jonathan Mayer is a computer science and law fellow at Stanford. In 2012 and 2013, Mayer collected legal sources from across the nation and made them available […]

Why the economics of venture capital make it difficult for legal tech startups to address access to justice issues.

Introduction Many legal tech startups begin with ambitious to make the law more accessible. These companies initially focus on legal consumers, developing products that make the law easier to find and understand for non-lawyers. But over time, the startups typically (1) pivot to focus on legal professionals or (2) fail to receive sufficient funding to continue. […]

Most pro se litigants in debt collection and family law

I spoke with a state court judge in Utah about what types of cases have the most pro se litigants (parties to a lawsuit that represent themselves). He said that pro se litigants most often appear in two types of cases: (1) debt collection and (2) family law. Pro se litigants are “the exception” in […]

Lack of Conformity in Federal Civil Procedure

For context, read our prior post on making a timeline of civil procedure. Layers of rules in federal court. If you have been sued in federal court, navigating the court system without a lawyer is nearly impossible. You must adhere to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which outline the rules for litigating a case. […]

Automated Answer To A Complaint

We are considering creating an automated program for answering a complaint. The answer to a complaint is among to most formulaic documents during a lawsuit. The complaint (1) initiates the lawsuit and (2) explains how the plaintiff was harmed and why defendant should pay. The answer is the defendant’s response to the complaint. The answer […]

Timeline of Civil Procedure

Intro to Civil Procedure The rules for how to navigate the court system are referred to as the “rules of civil procedure.” Each state–and the federal court system–has its own set of rules. The rules are organized in a long list. Most states have around 86 rules. Some have well over 100. Most rules contain […]