GLSC-DLC, was awarded a grant from the Legal Services Corporation Technology Initiatives Grant (LSC TIG) Program.  The LSC TIG Program provides support to LSC recipients like GLSC-DLC to help achieve LSC’s goal of increasing the quality of legal services to persons of low-income and improving their access to courts and legal information.

Through this project, GLSC-DLC and the Unified Court of Guam developed court-approved, interactive court forms for self-represented litigants.  The forms are available on this site, GLSC-DLC’s website at www.lawhelp.org/gu  and the Guam Self-Represented Litigants Kiosk located at the Guam Judicial Center. 

 

In short, Self Represented Litigants (SRLs) will be interviewed by a computer in simplified English. The answers provided by the SRL will then be automatically merged into templates of legal pleadings. The resulting legal pleadings can then be printed, signed, and filed with the Court.

The process to make this work involves a few things. First, the legal pleading templates must first be approved by the Court. After being approved, the templates are transformed into electronic forms using HotDocs software. When the electronic forms are completed, an interactive interview is developed using A2J Author software. This interactive interview is designed to ask SRLs questions in simple English, then take the SRLs answers and merge them properly into the electronic forms. When the forms and interviews are ready, they are uploaded onto the National Public Automated Documents Online (NPADO) website. The forms and interviews are then tested and are ready to go live. The end result is a pleasant, guided interview that automatically produces formal legal pleadings.