Early, in 2005, the Center for Access to Justice & Technology demonstrated capabilities of A2J Author® by building A2J Guided Interviews® for the project’s pilot partners in Illinois (Illinois Legal Aid Online and the Cook County Courts) and in California (California Administrative Office of the Courts). The Illinois A2J Guided Interviews® include “Security Deposit Complaint”interviews for tenants and an “Application for Waiver of Court Fees and Costs.” In addition, three California A2J Guided Interviews® were built in partnership with the California AOC to demonstrate A2J capabilities, including: “Petition for Adult Name Change,”“Application for Waiver of Court Fees and Costs,”and an “Application for an Order for Service of Summons by Posting and Mailing.”
Since the first production release of A2J Author® in September 2005, legal aid offices and courts in a variety of states have begun using the A2J Author® tool on their own. For example, Idaho Legal Aid Services, Inc., as of late 2007, had completed twenty-nine (29) of A2J interviews including, divorce, landlord/tenant, name change and small claims packets. Idaho’s A2J Guided Interviews® received over 58,000 hits in September 2007 alone.
Illinois Legal Aid Online has used A2J Author® to create a “Post Judgment Collections Guide” that guides users through the process of collecting court judgments, and an “Expungements” Guided Interview that is used in connection with an expungement help desk in Chicago’s Cook County courthouse. As of September 2007, twenty-nine (29) A2J Guided Interviews® have been made available to the public on Illinois Legal Aid Online and another nine (9) are in the final stages of review.
A2J Author® is gaining users and supporters daily and is steadily becoming a nationally recognized tool to meet the needs of low-income and self-represented litigants. For example, sixty (60) percent the over $2.1 million awarded to State Justice Institute and Legal Services Corporation partner grants announced in September 2007 include funding for A2J Author® projects. These grants position 2008 to be a banner year for A2J Author® as Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, New York, Ohio, Washington, and West Virginia each begin new A2J Guided Interviews® projects.