A2J Author® software is a finalist for the 2014 International Innovating Justice Award

A2J Author® software—developed by IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law and CALI®, the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction—has advanced to the final round of the international Hague Institute for the Internationalisation of Law (HiiL) 2014 Innovating Justice Awards. A2J Author finished in the top three among 14 other global innovations in the "Successful Innovations" category, which recognizes initiatives that are already making a difference.

The next phase of the awards process involves finalists attending the Innovating Justice Forum November 25 and 26 in The Hague to present their projects. CALI executive director John Mayer will represent the A2J Author team at the forum. The awards will be announced November 26.

"The advancement of A2J for the HiiL Innovating Justice award is terrific news for the software and its creators, CALI and IIT Chicago-Kent," said Professor Ronald W. Staudt, director of IIT Chicago-Kent's Center for Access to Justice and Technology (CAJT). "A2J Author has been used millions of times by self-represented people to seek justice. It is easily the most successful innovation I have been part of in the more than 36 years I have been working on issues related to law, technology and access to justice.

"This nomination will showcase that success and help law students, lawyers and courts worldwide learn about the benefits of A2J Author. CAJT program coordinator Jessica Bolack Frank did a great job in preparing the entry, and John Mayer will be fabulous presenting the A2J Author story at The Hague," said Professor Staudt.

A2J Author is the first court form automation software designed to be pro se user friendly. This allows nontechnical law students, legal aid attorneys, and courthouses to build customer-friendly interfaces that help self-represented litigants complete necessary forms. These A2J Guided Interviews® ask questions in plain language and process the information provided by the user to be assembled into a savable and printable document.

A2J Author is the most widely used document automation tool by pro se litigants to address their legal needs. There are more than 1,000 A2J Guided Interviews that are live on the LawHelp Interactive national server. These 1,000 Guided Interviews have helped almost 2.5 million people in less than 10 years.

It is the only free tool available to legal aid attorneys and court staff to automate court forms for people without lawyers. Other software tools and services on the market charge authors to create their automated forms or charge end users to access them. A2J Author is completely free for any nonprofit organization to use for noncommercial purposes.

A2J Author is jointly owned by IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law and the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction (CALI®). It is managed by IIT Chicago-Kent's Center for Access to Justice and Technology.

The Center for Access to Justice and Technology was established at IIT Chicago-Kent to make justice more accessible to the public by promoting the use of the Internet in the teaching, practice, and public access to the law. The Center conducts research, builds software tools, teaches classes, and supports faculty, staff, and student projects on access to justice and technology.

CALI®, the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction, is a nonprofit consortium of law schools whose mission includes promoting "access to justice through the use of computer technology."