A provocative conference asks how markets and new technologies could play a role in making civil procedure more equitable and accessible.
It’s a common view that market-based processes are more often a hinderance than a help to justice and equality. But are there ways that markets can serve the ends of justice in the legal system? This project seeks to challenge assumptions about markets by convening a conference to explore the roles market forces and new technologies could play in promoting, rather than hindering, access to justice in civil procedure.
Outside of the courtroom, market-based approaches to increasing access are already raising difficult questions about fairness. In early 2025, New York City began a congestion pricing program that charges drivers for using roads in Lower Manhattan. It could be said that this does harm equity by raising the cost of driving and disproportionately impacting those drivers who can least afford it; on the other hand, this law could be seen as improving equity by shortening long commutes and improving conditions for public transit users.
In the context of legal practice, recent years have seen the rise of third-party litigation finance, which involves venture capital investors lending money to lawyers and their clients in hopes of high returns from their investment in litigation. This practice raises questions about the ethics and impact of profit-seeking investment in litigation, but it also helps level the playing field between Davids and Goliaths in the courtroom by providing resources for litigation to those who otherwise would not have them.
As efforts are made to increase access in civil procedure, these kinds of difficult tradeoffs will inevitably arise. This conference will ask how technological tools, regulation, and market-based approaches could transform civil procedure, and to what extent these changes could promote equity compared to existing tools and systems.
Led by William H.J. Hubbard and Ronen Avraham, this project will culminate in a conference scheduled for summer 2025. The focus of the conference will be on courts and civil procedure, and how the operation of these legal institutions could be improved in terms of access, cost, delay, and substantive outcomes for litigants. This conference will bring together legal professionals, researchers, and technologists to discuss hidden markets within civil procedure as well as the potential for technological advancement to address inefficiencies and inequities in our courts.
The organizers anticipate a series of panels, tentatively including: “Technologies for Court Innovation,” “Explicit Markets as a Solution for Hidden Markets,” and “Are There Pathways to Reform in an Entrenched System?” The researchers anticipate that this conference will generate an edited volume or journal symposium which will present fresh ideas for civil litigation policy and practice to a broader audience.