A2J Author

A2J Author® is an expert system and user interface co-developed by Chicago-Kent and the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction (CALI) for helping self-represented litigants complete court forms or navigate a legal process. Students, lawyers, and technologists can create A2J Guided Interviews® that ask step-by-step questions written in plain language that help self-represented litigants enter information needed on the form. Those answers can then be assembled into a completed document that the user can print and file with the court.

Research conducted by Chicago-Kent College of Law and the Institute of Design at Illinois Tech, entitled the “Meeting the Needs Project,” shows that the simple act of filling out forms poses unique challenges that many self-represented litigants have trouble overcoming. To be effective, guided interviews for self-represented litigants needed to be very simple. 

A2J Author® leads users through a guided interview and collects all the information needed to prepare required court forms. Elegant, simple, and powerfully effective, the A2J Author interface makes court document assembly immeasurably more accessible to self-represented litigants.

A2J Author is available for free to interested courts, law schools, and legal service organizations.

More detailed information is available at www.a2j author.org.