Prerequisite: None

Exam Type: No Exam

This seminar will provide students with an opportunity to focus on the perspectives of individuals and families who need to access or navigate the legal system without legal representation. Organized as a workshop, the seminar will explore: What is it like to navigate the legal system without legal representation? How might we uncover the needs of individuals facing legal challenges without legal representation? What processes, tools, and systems can we design together to simplify navigation and help achieve better outcomes for unrepresented individuals within the legal system? We will explore these questions via contexts that students self-select including eviction from housing, misdemeanors, juvenile justice, and immigration/asylum. This course will be active, collaborative, and experiential; students will work in teams, observe situations and processes, interview people involved in these contexts, experience legal navigation processes, and develop proposed innovations. Practitioners in legal design will be invited to guest lecture and/or coach student teams. Students will also receive feedback on their final presentations from experts within their chosen contexts.

Note: This seminar will meet over four weeks, on the following dates: January 25 & 26, February 22 & 23, March 29 & 30, and April 19 & 20.