Abstract
For laypeople, the experience of courts can be confusing, intimidating or even aggravating. Court users are often overwhelmed because their needs are secondary to procedural or organizational needs. This perception is even more acute for court users with special or additional needs, such as those with past trauma, cognitive impairment or socio-cultural barriers. As a result, with trust in organizations potentially diminished, the effectiveness of the legal system can be undermined. This research seeks to advance our understanding of the nature and role of human-centered design as an approach to innovation, supporting change in the legal system while creating or maintaining trustworthy environments. Human-centered design prioritizes human needs by enabling meaningful interactions in legal environments across the entire user journey, not just in the courtroom. We identify five levers and two levels of design which enable human-centered design to improve court environments and ultimately help build trust of court users within the legal system.
Highlights
Court user experiences, including those of private citizens, play a central role in an effective legal system
We identify five levers and two levels of design which enable human-centered design to improve court environments and help build trust of court users within the legal system
We focus on trust in legal organizations where court users rely on fair procedures and believe in dependable court environments
Summary
Court user experiences, including those of private citizens, play a central role in an effective legal system. Non-adversarial justice might play out through less formal procedures, a greater focus on the needs of court users, less aggressive argument and a more collaborative ‘culture’ inside the courtroom. It can manifest in the monitoring of progress of those before the court so that judicial officers act more like a “‘coach’ rather than an ‘arbiter’.”4 the court user experience extends significantly beyond the courtroom and includes any ‘touchpoint’ where court users interact with the legal environment. This paper advances our understanding of humancentered design in a legal context, part of an emerging practice and research domain of ‘legal design’.9 While focusing on lay people as private citizens and court users, we seek to demonstrate why human-centered design is appropriate and useful in facilitating the court user’s experience of trust
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