BYU Law Students Introduce Automation Platforms to Streamline Divorce Documents and Court-Assigned Community Service

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Apr 16, 2024, 10:00 ET

PROVO, Utah, April 16, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- BYU Law today announced its LawX Legal Design Lab has developed two legal technology solutions with potential to benefit Utahns, the Utah legal community and beyond. The growing need for innovative solutions to address access-to-justice challenges and increasing popularity of hands-on legal training enabled LawX to tackle two issues this year – marking the first time since its 2017 launch that two projects were pursued concurrently.

The first solution is CourtServe, a platform to connect judges, charities and people convicted of certain misdemeanors or infractions to make it easier for judges to assign community service. The second, Order Up, is a divorce document automation platform. On Friday, April 12, the Law school held LawX Demo Day to present the platforms to stakeholders, including legal professionals, nonprofit organizations and potential investors. Both LawX projects are being piloted in Utah with potential for scalability in other states.

"BYU Law is committed to helping our students become effective problem solvers and committed community builders. In keeping with this spirit, LawX provides students with a unique hands-on opportunity to develop solutions to real problems," said Nick Hafen, Head of Legal Technology Education at BYU Law where he coordinates the law school's technology curriculum, including LawX. "Throughout the semester, students design and create prototypes, which might be tech or policy solutions. They test their solutions with real potential users, and at the end of the semester they pitch their solutions to investors, stakeholders and experts. The program pushes students in ways no other law school course does, and students come out much better equipped to confront real-world legal challenges at the individual and structural level."

CourtServe

When a person commits a crime, judges have the option to assign court-appointed community service in lieu of jail time or fines, which is often a better way to reintegrate people into society. But LawX research found a lack of resources available to match court-appointed volunteers with appropriate community service opportunities. Interviews with charities and parole supervisors revealed that the vetting process can be embarrassing if the person committed a crime that precludes them from certain volunteer work. Research also found judges are hesitant to assign community service due to lack of tools to find volunteer opportunities and an archaic recording process that strains court resources.

CourtServe is a platform to connect judges, charities and court-appointed volunteers to make it easier for judges to assign community service. The online resource assists court-appointed volunteers to find and fulfill their community service obligations. It allows charities to post opportunities and enables volunteers to filter opportunities based on the type of crime they committed and other parameters. Once the community service is complete, the CourtServe platform streamlines the process for court-appointed volunteers to generate signed documentation on charity letterhead to present proof of completion to the courts.

The prototype has received positive feedback from judges as well as adult probation and parole supervisors, who agree this resource makes it more likely that a judge would assign community service in lieu of fines. CourtServe has received interest from venture capitalists who recognize its potential as a marketable software as a service. The CourtServe website is available at https://courtserve.org.

"I'm a huge advocate of LawX; this process provides students with a means to develop creative solutions to real problems, which is really different from reading a book or hearing about case law," said Hayden Moss, one of the students on the CourtServe project. "We're taught that BYU Law School's goal is to create people who make the world a better place. This class breaks the mold of traditional law school studies and shows me that I can make a real difference."

Order Up

Divorce proceedings can take months if not years to resolve and are often financially taxing on the parties involved, who frequently can't afford to wait until the end of the case to start getting child support or alimony. Temporary orders can address this, but whether you hire a lawyer or represent yourself, filling out the required paperwork and financial declaration can be frustrating, time consuming and expensive. The LawX students wanted to develop a solution to automate this process, making it easier for a divorcing client who is financially struggling to get a temporary order, and reduce the stress in a difficult situation. The OrderUp platform prompts the respondent to complete a list of questions about their financial status, including assets and expenses, with easy-to-follow prompts.

The prototype has received positive feedback from nonprofit organizations that help low-income Utahns navigate the legal system as well as paralegals and family law practice attorneys, who believe it will reduce mistakes, save time and money, and free up more hours for pro bono work. The Order Up website is https://www.orderup.legal. It is currently available in English with a Spanish version planned for development.

About BYU Law School
Founded in 1971 with its inaugural class in 1973, the J. Reuben Clark Law School (BYU Law) has grown into one of the nation's leading law schools – recognized for innovative research and teaching in social change, transactional design, entrepreneurship, corpus linguistics, criminal justice and religious freedom. The Law School has more than 7,000 alumni serving in communities around the world. BYU Law is consistently ranked by National Jurist as one of the best-value law schools in the country. BYU Law is also one of only six law schools to receive the Bloomberg Law School Innovation recognition. BYU Law seeks to "develop people of integrity who combine faith and intellect in lifelong service to God and neighbor." For more information, visit https://law.byu.edu.

About LawX
Launched in 2017, LawX is a design-thinking class in which BYU Law students seek to address an access-to-justice legal issue one semester at a time, whether through a change in policy, process, or product. The students utilize design thinking to research, ideate, prototype and test a solution in a fast-paced environment. LawX projects have generated several technology-based legal solutions, including SoloSuit to fight debt collections in court without a lawyer, Hello Landlord to improve landlord-tenant communication, and Goodbye Record to address flaws in the expungement process.

SOURCE BYU Law