DIGITAL PATHWAYS TO JUSTICE: LEVERAGING AI AND LEGALTECH FOR THE UNDERPRIVILEGED

Abstract

The access to justice has been a common issue across the world, especially in the weaker and developing legal economies whereby the disadvantaged communities are put in economic, geographical, linguistic and institutionally discriminating situations to access legal services. In other countries, especially in rural or poor contexts, people are unable to seek the help of lawyers, legal processes, case-following, or even formal legal institutions, meaning that they lack access to or seek legal redress. It is on this basis that the fast progress of artificial intelligence (AI) and LegalTech is holding new opportunities in enhancing access to justice by automated legal triage, document assembly, online dispute resolution, and AI-assisted legal assistance platforms.

By identifying the ways AI and LegalTech could work as digital access-to-justice solutions to developing legal systems, this paper explores how these technologies can lessen the burden of procedures, enhance legal literacy, and increase service delivery to marginalised populations. The research examines the possibilities as well as the drawbacks of implementing AI-based legal solutions to a setting characterized by low digital literacy rates, infrastructural factors, and institutional inequality through a socio-technical conceptual framework. It establishes some of the main issues with respect to equity, transparency, accountability, and governance, and why LegalTech models created to fit developed legal systems cannot necessarily work when directly imported into jurisdictions like India or other members of the Global South.

This paper presents the argument that, although AI-powered LegalTech has a great potential in terms of democratising access to justice, such tools should be designed in a context-oriented manner, have well-developed governance institutions, and be evaluated in a continuous fashion. The study based on the realities of weaker legal economies is part of growing digital justice ecosystem-related scholarship and provides recommendations to policymakers, courts, and designers interested in implementing fair, accountable, and sustainable AI-driven justice solutions.