America is a nation founded on justice and the rule of law. But our laws
are too complex, and legal advice too expensive, for poor and even
middle-class Americans to get help and vindicate their rights. Criminal
defendants facing jail time may receive an appointed lawyer who is
juggling hundreds of cases and immediately urges them to plead guilty.
Civil litigants are even worse off; usually, they get no help at all
navigating the maze of technical procedures and rules. The same is true
of those seeking legal advice, like planning a will or negotiating an
employment contract.
Rebooting Justice presents a novel response to longstanding problems.
The answer is to use technology and procedural innovation to simplify
and change the process itself. In the civil and criminal courts where
ordinary Americans appear the most, we should streamline complex
procedures and assume that parties will not have a lawyer, rather than
the other way around. We need a cheaper, simpler, faster justice system
to control costs. We cannot untie the Gordian knot by adding more
strands of rope; we need to cut it, to simplify it.