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Rebooting Justice: More Technology, Fewer Lawyers, and the Future of Law
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.
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.
280 pages, Hardcover
Published August 1, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 21, 2019
A brilliant critique of the stranglehold lawyers have on the justice system, and how the system is not set up for the benefit of those who need it. It has a lot of fascinating suggestions which I suspect will not be adopted. It also has some opinions that I suspect will be extraordinarily unpopular, in particular that public defenders should only be provided for indigent defendants in felony cases.
June 5, 2018
Good book about the legal profession..but I didn't quite have the chops to stick with it. Might try again at a later date.
January 6, 2019
The writing in this book is a bit long-winded and repetitive, and the ideas could have been delivered in a much shorter book. However, the ideas themselves are very interesting and changed how I think about access to justice issues. I also appreciated the history sections for perspective on the evolution of the legal profession.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews