Duncan the Debtbot: Leveraging Technology to Increase Access to Justice, 0320 COBJ, Vol. 49, No. 3 Pg. 6

AuthorBY REAGAN LARKIN
PositionVol. 49, 3 [Page 6]

49 Colo.Law. 6

Duncan the Debtbot: Leveraging Technology to Increase Access to Justice

Vol. 49, No. 3 [Page 6]

Colorado Lawyer

March, 2020

ACCESS TO JUSTICE

BY REAGAN LARKIN

Colorado Legal Services (CLS) is the only program in Colorado that provides free civil legal aid to indigent people in every county. Serving low-income and elderly Coloradans, CLS focuses on legal issues that have the greatest impact on basic human needs, including food, shelter, utilities, necessary medical care, adequate income, and freedom from domestic violence and abuse. Accordingly, CLS provides legal help in the areas of family law and domestic violence, consumer and finance, housing, income maintenance and employment, and health and individual rights.

In 2018, CLS handled over 12,000 cases on behalf of over 25,000 low-income Coloradans and successfully obtained nearly $4 million in awards and benefits for its clients.[1] Although CLS employs 60 attorneys in 13 offices across Colorado,[2] it extends its reach to help even more low-income Coloradans by using technology to increase access to justice across the state.

To fund new technology initiatives, CLS seeks grants from Legal Services Corporation (LSC), the federally funded entity that provides operating funds to legal aid organizations throughout the nation, including CLS. CLS has received 15 technology grants from LSC since 2002. CLS also relies heavily on funds raised during the annual Associates Campaign, discussed at the end of this article.

Meet Duncan

A recent technology initiative grant from LSC allowed CLS to develop a chatbot to help people in debt or being threatened with or facing legal action. CLS has affectionately dubbed the chatbot “Duncan the Debtbot,” after Duncan Honeycutt, the 2019 fellow who helped develop it. CLS launched Duncan the Debtbot for public use at the end of January 2020. The Debtbot is accessible through CLS’s website.3

Duncan the Debtbot was the brainchild of Molly French, CLS’s technology unit manager. French saw a chatbot demonstration at a conference and was inspired to create one for CLS. She believes the chatbot format has many potential uses in the legal aid field and hopes to develop them in the future using the Debtbot as a starting point.

Functionality

In designing and developing the Debtbot, French and other CLS employees first sought to pinpoint the legal needs of low-income Coloradans living in rural areas. CLS staff interviewed attorneys, judges, advocates, and debtors in the Seventh and Twenty-First Judicial Districts (collectively, stakeholders) to determine relevant issues and legal needs, and then designed the Debtbot to address those issues and needs.

Trough guided navigation and artificial intelligence, Duncan the Debtbot educates debtors, allows them to evaluate their options for dealing with a debt-related...

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