Chicago-Kent College of Law -- Record Online

Center for Information Technology and Law: 
News & announcements for the week of November 19, 2001
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Happy Thanksgiving
from the
Justice Web Collaboratory Team!


The Justice Web Collaboratory Needs Creative Thinkers and Visionaries!

Help Shape the Future of Legal Computing!

The Justice Web Collaboratory promotes the use of the Internet in the teaching, practice and public access to the law. The JWC seeks synergy created by knowledge sharing collaborations between legal academia, the judiciary, law practitioners and consumers of the law. Harnessing the power of the Internet and utilizing cutting-edge technologies in video/audio streaming, document management, electronic communication and data base management, the JWC is building tools to provide interactive training, peer-to-peer communication, online education, news and updates, legal forms, directories and research mechanisms.


JWC Student Leadership Opportunities

Justice Web Collaboratory Externships

Practice Law on the Internet!
  Help low income people get legal services!
Work with experienced lawyers!  
  Get practical client experience!

E-Lawyering: Use the Web to increase access to justice!

If any of these opportunities interest you, The Justice Web Collaboratory (JWC) is perfect for you! The JWC and the Law Offices are sponsoring an exciting new externship for the Spring 2002 semester. A JWC Externship offers you the opportunity to explore access to justice issues, including the use of technology in legal services, alternative legal services delivery models and pro se litigant assistance. Students who have an interest in public interest law or who have computer/web design skills are especially encouraged to participate in the JWC externship. This program is limited to 5 students - don't miss your chance to participate! The JWC will hire 2-5 2002 Summer Fellows - externship may lead to these paid positions.

Exciting assignments include:

  • Direct client service at pro se help desks, legal advice hotlines and eviction court.
  • Web resource development for pro se litigants.
  • Legal research, writing and editing.
  • Work with expert attorneys selected from the Illinois legal aid community.

For more information about a Justice Web Collaboratory Externship for the Spring 2002 semester, please contact Lisa Colpoys, Legal Content Manager, Illinois Technology Center for Law and the Public Interest at lcolpoys@kentlaw.edu or 312.906.5321 or stop by Room 546 at the following times to get additional information:


Meeting the Needs of Self-Represented Litigants
A Consumer-Based Approach

Chicago-Kent College of Law and Illinois Institute of Technology's Institute of Design are collaborating to examine court processes and recommend modifications to eliminate or reduce procedural barriers to access for self-represented litigants. This project represents a bold attempt to harness the most advanced process design technologies and the power of the Internet in order to fundamentally reengineer civil court processes in which self-represented litigants seek to access judicial services. In the first phase of the project, graduate students in law and design fanned out across the U.S. to gather customer observation of self represented litigants. Students and faculty traveled to Colorado, Delaware California and two counties in Illinois to study existing innovations and to interview members of the judiciary. In the second phase, the research teams fed this data into the latest in system design methods, to redesign civil court processes from a consumer's prospective.

Now is your chance to make a difference! Give back to your community! Help establish the groundwork for making the law accessible to all of the public! In the final phase of the project, researchers and programmers will build a Web site prototype that will incorporate the results of the design process. Five different court systems have agreed to test the prototype beginning in 2002. If you have web design and programming experience and are proficient in programs such as FLASH 5.0 and PhotoShop, we need you!

For more information or to sign up to participate in this innovative project, please contact Todd Pedwell, Manager, Justice Web Collaboratory at tpedwell@kentlaw.edu or 312.906.5328.

 


 

 

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