Digital justice, human touch: Transforming court services

The lottery system for daily case assignments, implemented at Nepal's Supreme Court in December 2021 then adopted by High Courts and District Courts nationwide, has reduced opportunities for "bench shopping" and middlemen influence by removing the Chief Justice's sole discretion over cause lists.

The lawyers at Lathrop GPM created a strategy to settle civil rights claims by encouraging municipalities to use insurance money to pay settlements. The strategy helps inmates alleging bodily injury and wrongful conviction to recieve payouts and be absolved of their crimes without using taxpayer dollars.

The Cheshire County Restorative Justice Program works to take low-level defendants, accused of things like shoplifting or alcohol violations out of court and into an alternative process, sparing them criminal records that would later weigh them down. The program’s goal is to push the legal system toward restorative justice, reimagining its traditional processes.

Software and apps are helping millions of Americans trying to solve civil problems on their own.

Atlanta's city government used public real estate, favorable financing, and a quasi-public development authority to open a privately-operated grocery store in a downtown food desert within nine months, serving more than 150,000 customers with prices matched to Kroger and generating nearly 20% revenue growth.

The Iowa Flood Center developed a low-cost flood monitoring system, which includes a $7,500 water gauge and predictive mapping tools backed by human experts, that's helped local officials in make better-informed decisions during flood emergencies. In 2024, the center helped rescue coordinators safely navigate boats to 300 stranded residents during a flood.

The Women’s Prison Project reviews Louisiana court cases in which women survivors of domestic violence who claimed they killed their abusive partners in self-defense were sentenced to life by a jury, often in trials that would be considered unfair today. The organization has helped release 10 abuse survivors by pushing for cases to be re-considered.

A community-based, early-warning system for flooding in Durban, South Africa, gave community members an early enough evacuation order so that no lives were lost. The system uses information from Weather Service reports to know when and where to monitor real-time local conditions. When a community member or member of the disaster management unit sees the conditions are becoming dangerous, they use messaging apps to warn the community.

The Tap In Center in St. Louis connects volunteer attorneys with people who have open warrants to work toward recalling them. Since the service launched a little over a year ago, nearly 300 warrants have been recalled.

In Palm Beach County, an automated system sends text-message reminders, instead of just postal mail notices, to people with upcoming court dates. About 14% of those jailed in the county were there on warrants for failure to appear in court, placing a burden both on the system and on people's disrupted lives. Since the system was started, warrants for failure to appear are down by more than half, although other factors are also at play. At the very least, every court appearance someone makes is one less public cost and private hassle.