The National Center for State Courts has released a new white paper for evaluating the cost/benefit of various strategies for expanding access to justice, with a particular focus on litigant portals and Online Dispute Resolution (ODR). The paper proposes more of an “engineering” approach by introducing an analytical tool for organizations working on closing the access gap to estimate the potential impact of proposed solutions.
The tool can be used to:
- assess the magnitude of an access problem that could be solved by a specific capability;
- identify barriers that must be surmounted or reduced to achieve program objectives;
- prioritize the tasks that must be performed and the capabilities that must be implemented to close the targeted gaps.
The sub-equations in the tool can also be used to systematically think through steps to be taken for successful implementation.