Suffolk Law Team Wins $10,000 Prize for Narrowing Justice Gap

LIT Lab's 'rallying call' for legal access celebrated by justice innovation foundation
Suffolk LIT Lab leaders
The LIT Lab team (from left): Bryce Willey, clinical fellow; David Colarusso, director, practitioner in residence; Quinten Steenhuis, practitioner in residence

Suffolk Law’s Legal Innovation & Technology Lab (LIT Lab) has been honored with a $10,000 justice innovation award by the Foundation for Improvement of Justice, Inc. In its public announcement, the organization noted the Lab’s pioneering work with mobile apps that are increasing access to justice.

Through its annual Paul H. Chapman Award, the Foundation, a private, non-profit organization, has given out nearly $3 million since 1984. The innovation prize honors individuals and groups who have improved local, state, and federal systems of justice in the U.S.

Court forms that adapt to users' answers

Shawn O’Connor, executive director of the Foundation, described the LIT Lab’s work as impressive and innovative, noting the team’s smart court forms, which have walked thousands of self-represented litigants (SRLs) through complex court documents on a phone or computer. “The smart forms adapt to the answers provided and offer information in context that explains the choices SRLs can make and the law relating to a specific legal problem,” she said. O’Connor is a mediator with the Justice Center of Atlanta.

“If you can afford an attorney, great—but there are a lot of people who really just need to file that lawsuit to stop the eviction or to get the restraining order and can't afford an attorney,” O’Connor said.

The awards selection committee, many of whom are judges and lawyers, appreciated that the LIT Lab is driving access to justice through mobile-friendly tools that are open-source, and therefore available for customization by court systems around the country, she added.

First law school in the nation 

In 2023, Suffolk became the first law school in the nation to launch a multi-state smart system for electronic filing of court documents as part of a partnership with Tyler Technologies, a major national player in court forms transmission. In addition to providing users mobile-friendly, real-time, step-by-step help with court forms, the Lab jumped in to help multiple states improve their often convoluted and complex systems for getting completed forms into a court’s docket. That effort to make e-filing simpler and more user-friendly is critical because thousands of documents e-filed by pro se litigants through older systems have been rejected by court clerks.

A 'rallying call'

O’Connor also applauded the fact that so many Suffolk Law students helped drive the effort to create smart court forms. The Lab and its students led 200 volunteers across five continents in the cutting-edge project. “That's a pretty impressive rallying call that they put out to get this project together,” she said.