2018 Equal Justice Conference: Ethics in the Age of Innovation

Innovation in the form of artificial intelligence and other self-help enabling technologies was created to help with the access to justice crisis. But with no one regulating these complex technologies, disconnects can arise between technology and the legal professionals that use it. In this report from On The Road at the 2018 Equal Justice Conference, host Kimberly Sanchez talks to Jonathan Pyle, Abhijeet Chavan, and Angela Tripp about establishing guiding principles of ethics in legal technology in order to close the communication gap between tech companies and the justice system. They discuss the four areas the guidelines focus on including transparency, accountability, reliability, and unbiased design, and how these areas will address potential biases and inaccuracies before technology is implemented in the legal industry.

Jonathan Pyle is the contract performance officer at Philadelphia Legal Assistance (PLA), where he is responsible for implementing new uses of technology to expand service delivery.

Abhijeet Chavan is the chief technology officer at Urban Insight and creator of DLAW, an open source website management platform for public information websites.

Angela Tripp has been the project manager of the Michigan Legal Help Program since 2011, and co-managing attorney of the Michigan Poverty Law Program since 2010.