Reflecting on the Judicial Innovation Fellowship’s Pilot Program
December 9, 2024
Two and a half years ago, the Judicial Innovation Fellowship (JIF) Program at Georgetown Law set out to build a new type of program: one that would help courts better support their patrons by embedding technologists and designers within specific courts, as JIF-sponsored and -managed fellows.
Today, the Judicial Innovation Fellowship Program released a report reflecting on the inaugural year of its fellowship program. The program set out to work with state, local, and tribal courts to modernize the technical infrastructure, process, and design of public-facing websites and tools that are built for people who cannot afford an attorney. Over the course of the past year, three JIF fellows worked in courts across the country to achieve these goals and in service of creating a more equitable judicial system.
Fellow Verenice Ramirez worked in Utah State Courts to improve tools for self-represented litigants and develop guidelines for staff to better assist the public. Ms. Ramirez met with legal professionals and self-represented litigants, helping her improve the user experience for the Utah Courts’ Self-Help Center. Ms. Ramirez also helped court staff better understand public needs. Nathanael Player, director of the Utah Courts’ Self-Help Center, said Ms. Ramirez’s work “changed the way many administrators in the court system think about who we serve, how we serve them, and what assumptions we make about them.”
Fellow Emily Lippolis embedded herself in Kansas State Courts. Ms. Lippolis created a prototype for an electronic filing system designed for self-represented litigants. Through her court stakeholder presentations, Ms. Lippolis demonstrated the importance of user experience-focused design in courts. Because of her work, the Kansas Office of Judicial Administration’s IT department intends to advance user experience designs by developing in-house tools rather than relying on outside vendors.
Fellow Kat Albrecht worked in the Hamilton County, Tennessee General Sessions Court. Dr. Albrecht’s work focused on assessing court data to understand stakeholder experiences and better understand cycles of homelessness and recidivism. She created working groups with court and county leadership to give her insight into Hamilton County’s data needs and elevate her work. Dr. Albrecht took a hands-on approach to her fellowship, traveling across Hamilton County to attend community events and build personal relationships with her colleagues. Her work fostered “local investment, relationship building, and commitment to long-term changes,” according to Alexa LeBoeuf, the County Economic and Community Development Director at the Hamilton County Mayor’s Office.
The JIF Program was successful in its goal of creating sustainable, replicable solutions to technological challenges in court systems. It’s pilot showed that the placement of technical talent in courts can increase the public’s access to the judicial system. In the coming year, JIF will work to broaden understanding of the power of court modernization as a critical method of ensuring increasing to justice. JIF proved that technologists can play a crucial role in our court systems, and offers a model for the future.