Abstract

Most Americans facing a legal problem, whether an eviction, a custody dispute, or a debt collection suit, navigate it alone. In three out of four civil cases in state courts, at least one side has no lawyer, and the judges and lawyers inside the system are burning out. We will never hire enough lawyers to close this gap.

Enter artificial intelligence. AI tools can now explain legal concepts in plain language, draft documents, and guide people through procedures that once required years of training. But the same technology fabricates case citations, offers no confidentiality, and could flood overwhelmed courts with new filings, deepening the very crisis it promises to solve.

Drawing on their work leading Michigan Law's AI Law and Policy Clinic, where students build and test AI tools with real courts and legal aid organizations, Bridgette Carr and Vivek Sankaran explore what AI can genuinely fix in the justice system and what it might break.