Turning the Page: AI and Document Automation for Self-Represented Litigants
Self-Represented Litigants and the Access to Justice Crisis
The ability of individuals to obtain legal representation in the United States is in dire straits. The United States ranks only 115 of 142 nations in terms of accessibility to the court and to civil legal services. When someone is presented with a civil legal issue, they are often unaware of where to turn for advice or guidance on next steps. In addition to not knowing where to go, an individual may be overwhelmed by how much time, energy, and resources are needed to simply fill out forms. For example, an individual struggling with eviction may find it difficult to know who to contact (they may not know which sources are trustworthy or reliable); where to find information (either via website, in-person, or over-the-phone resources); what sort of information they need to provide to the court; and when they should file their forms (they may be unaware of filing deadlines, statute of limitations, and other relevant timelines).
While many legal aid organizations are working to solve this access to justice crisis, government-funded legal services are often not enough. Access to quality legal information should not depend on one’s income. Introducing flexibility into when, where, and how legal services are delivered gives people both a voice and a choice in how their case proceeds. Fortunately for individuals in 2025, there are tools that will help expand their ability to tackle their legal issues, taking them one step closer to achieving access to justice.
Document Automation as a Tool
Since its start, document automation has been a way to save time by simplifying tedious tasks for legal professionals. But it is not an evenly distributed tool. Even as lawyers automate their processes through document automation, there still exists a massive gap in access to legal services and information for self-represented litigants. Document automation is primarily geared toward attorneys, who already hold a monopoly over legal services in the United States. In the U.S., individuals who are unrepresented are vastly underserved in their ability to gather information and fill forms for their legal issues.
Artificial Intelligence May Help Bridge the Gap
There have been significant advances in artificial intelligence (AI) over the past several years. Much like document automation, AI has the ability and the potential to speed up legal tasks. In the same way, AI can simplify information for self-represented litigants and individuals who are unfamiliar with the legal landscape. While AI is a debated topic for many in the legal industry, its capabilities cannot be denied. During a recent summit regarding AI and legal aid, one of several mentioned benefits of AI was its ability to amplify legal aid’s impact through supporting direct legal work, including document review and analysis.
For lawyers, AI has the ability to increase efficiency with projects ranging from navigating intake interviews to conducting legal research to drafting documents. Beyond helping lawyers, legal scholars have highlighted AI’s ability to increase efficiency and help individuals who are working to solve their own legal issues.
How AI Can Help Self-Represented Litigants
For self-represented litigants, civil legal resources, community resources, and self-help resources exist, but they are often difficult to find, hidden behind paywalls, or hard to understand. Whether a person is facing eviction, divorce, loss of custody, discrimination, or something else, knowing where to find legal resources and information should not prevent them from seeking help.
As legal aid programs look toward AI to streamline their processes, several key opportunities and challenges have emerged. Among the many projects relating to AI and access to justice, some projects stand out:
- An automated system to review default judgments for legal errors, which could result in substantial improvements for manual reviews;
- A chatbot system to assist self-represented litigants in Alaska;
- A system that conducts legal intakes to screen for income limits and federal guidelines.
- There is an AI system for consumer protection, an AI program for summarizing facts, contracts, and other documents, and AI chatbots to ask about one’s legal problems.
- AI could help individuals in family law court who are going through mediation or uncontested divorces, many of whom would not otherwise be able to afford legal representation or who may not qualify for legal aid.
When it comes to other functions of AI, this list only begins to scratch the surface.
Challenges of AI and Self-Represented Litigants
Like any technological innovation, AI is not without its challenges. One of the largest challenges for scaling AI systems is ensuring they are able to adapt to local legal rules. Access to justice experts point first and foremost to the importance of usability, practicality, and accuracy, which some systems may still lack. Furthermore, experts in the field warn that if AI does not become widely available, a “two-tiered” system of legal services could result, with those with more resources able to get legal representation, and those without means relying on somewhat-spotty AI services.
The use of AI also presents unique ethical issues when it comes to balancing a lawyer’s duties of zealous representation, competence, and diligence in keeping abreast of technological changes. For instance, when a lawyer is using AI in their representation of a client, they must take into account the potential for error in the AI-generated responses. But when an individual is unrepresented, they may not know about this potential for error, and the consequences for their case may be dire.
What's Ahead
The implications for how AI is used in the legal system and among self-represented litigants will be far-reaching. Members of the legal industry, which is notoriously slow to change, must familiarize themselves with AI’s advances, including by thinking through how they can incorporate AI into their daily practice. Many legal professionals are now inviting their colleagues to responsibly develop AI to serve the public interest. As AI continues to evolve, it offers a promising path to bridge the access to justice gap and empower self-represented litigants.
Want to Learn More?
The content above is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to document automation, AI, and self-represented litigants. If you would like to learn more about the use of AI in the legal field, check out some of the excellent articles mentioned throughout this post. If you have questions you would like to discuss, reach out to me or my colleagues at A2J Tech!
- An article about legal intake and LLMs (large language models)
- One of the researchers working to write and educate about AI in the legal field
- A seminar with one of the leading professionals in the AI & Access to Justice space
- Stanford’s Access to Justice lab
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