Welcome!

Welcome to Justice and Technology Practicum: Fall 2013 at Chicago-Kent College of Law. This site will be used to supplement the Fall 2013 class taught by
Professor Ronald W. Staudt. Course information, grading policies, attendance
requirements and assignments will be posted here.   There are some new tools available here to help you have a successful and productive experience.  For example, you can submit your completed work and sign up for field work and individual sessions with our TA on this site.

This is a hybrid course with elements of clinic, legal writing and substantive instruction.

  • Like a clinic, this course is  “experience-based and focuses on appropriate lawyer roles, legal institutions, professional responsibility, and the … practice of legal representation or dispute resolution.”  Clinical field work includes court house observation and participation at the Chicago-Kent Self Help Web Center at the Circuit Court of Cook County Daley Center.
  • Like legal writing, students will perform legal research, draft legal documents and revise those drafts as part of their required performances.  Writing tasks also require students to learn and use advanced technologies like A2J Author® and document assembly software.
  • Like a substantive seminar, students will read and discuss material on technology as it enables new models of elawyering for clients of all types.   

Course information, grading policies, attendance requirements and assignments for each class will be posted here. Use the links at the top of the page to access this information.  This web site is a work in progress: new material and changes to assignments will be posted throughout the semester, so be sure to check back often.

For the first class on August 27, here is the reading assignment:

In advance of the first class on August 27, please read the Introduction and the first three articles in the recently published Chicago-Kent Law Review Symposium, “Justice, Lawyering and Legal Education in the Digital Age.”

Here is the skill exercise for the first class:
Explore the Illinois Legal Aid Online web site.  Locate the A2J Guided Interview® that produces a petition to waive court fees in Cook County Illinois Circuit Court.  As if you were a pro se litigant, complete the interview and print the forms needed to waive court fees in Cook County, IL. Bring the completed forms to class.