Prof. Hannes Westermann, first speaker of the "AI & Access to Justice" webinars by the Stanford Legal Design Lab

The Cyberjustice Laboratory is pleased to announce that Prof. Hannes Westermann was the first speaker at the Stanford Legal Design Lab’s “AI & Access to Justice” webinars.

In this inaugural webinar titled “Generative AI for Access to Justice: Challenges and Opportunities,” Prof. Westermann described generative AI as having significant potential to improve access to justice. It simplifies the resolution of everyday legal problems for laypeople, who often face the complexity and costs of legal procedures.

Prof. Westermann’s presentation highlighted three projects using AI for this purpose:

• JusticeBot, developed at the Cyberjustice Laboratory, assists users in disputes between tenants and landlords by providing legal information tailored to their responses to specific questions.
• The DALLMA project aims to automate the drafting of legal documents, making the process more efficient and user-friendly.
• The LLMediator project uses AI to promote amicable resolutions in online conflict resolutions, suggesting less confrontational language and assisting human mediators

Despite the promises of these technologies, challenges such as AI hallucinations, biases, and privacy concerns remain. Prof. Westermann emphasizes the need for ongoing research, technical innovations, and ethical guidelines to ensure that AI tools complement rather than replace human intelligence in the legal field. He advocates for AI as a means to empower individuals and improve access to justice.

He concludes by saying: “Will law be replaced by AI?” is a bit like asking: “Will the carpenter be replaced by the hammer?” It just kind of doesn’t make sense as a question, as the hammer is a tool used by the carpenter and not as a replacement for them.