New research from an interdisciplinary team from Indiana’s Coalition for Court Access provides insights into the experiences of self-represented litigants (SRLs) in-person relative to experiences online. It is among the first studies in the U.S. to gather empirical evidence on the impact of remote technologies on vulnerable and self-represented individuals in civil proceedings. This research comes at a time when many courts are deciding whether to continue to use remote technologies introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic or return fully to in-person proceedings. The research uses a people-centered approach to highlight litigant’s views on this question.

The final report discusses self-represented individuals’ experiences and views on remote hearings vs. in-person proceedings in several areas: (i) Preferences; (ii) Procedural Justice; (iii) Distributive Justice; (iv) Structural Affordances and Barriers; (v) Technological Affordances and Barriers; and (vi) Social Psychological Affordances and Barriers.

A significant percentage of self-represented litigants in the study agree that online civil courts enhance access to justice for individuals without legal representation, particularly for parties navigating high-volume civil dockets. A large percentage of self-represented litigants indicated that they would like to be able to access court remotely in the future. Among study participants, remote proceedings were largely viewed positively, improved individuals’ experiences of procedural justice and outcome satisfaction, and “provided notable conveniences, and decreased the stress of attending court in person”.

The final report, Accessing Justice with Zoom: Experiences and Outcomes in Online Civil Courts by Victor D. Quintanilla, Kurt Hugenberg, Ryan Hutchings & Nedim Yel is available online here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xfb052SVZRTIwv8-03xQyX9UzFjcvcul/view.