Impact Areas

i4J’s Three Keys to Unlock Change

i4J’s theory of change focuses on three disruptive strategies - Service, System, and Structure - and applies them to the most urgent civil legal issues impacting low-income Americans.

Creating new legal service models so more people can know the law.

Improving justice sector technologies so more people can use the law.

Building tools for policy advocacy so more people can change the law.

Service: Creating new legal service models

Lawyers have declared a monopoly over a service they are not providing: in a legal service ecosystem where only lawyers are legally permitted to give legal advice, 92% of low-income civil legal needs go unmet. Legal aid and pro bono alone will never close that justice gap. i4J’s Service Impact Area is leveraging reform of unauthorized practice of law restrictions to create new service pathways for under-represented and low-income community members.

Research & Theory of Change

Since 2018, i4J has been at the forefront of designing new service models that leverage unauthorized practice of law reform. Today, i4J’s Community Legal Education Initiatives are redefining how and for whom legal power is accessible.

Learn more about i4J’s Service Impact Area.

Graduate Student Courses

i4J’s Service Impact Area is driven by our Innovating Legal Services course, which is open to graduate students in any field at both the University of Arizona and the University of Utah.

Learn more about Graduate Student Courses.

Community Legal Education

i4J’s Community Legal Education Initiatives are legal empowerment courses that train individuals in community-helping roles to provide limited-scope legal advice as community-based justice workers.

Learn more about i4J’s Community Legal Education.

System: Improving justice-sector technologies

With digital transformation demands increasing dramatically, i4J’s System Impact Area is applying user experience (UX) methodologies to evaluate and redesign existing and emerging public-facing justice sector technologies, such as online dispute resolution, court websites, and navigator tools, to ensure that they serve the needs of all court users as they navigate the civil legal system.

Research & Theory of Change

Since 2020, i4J has been at the forefront of advancing access to justice through human-centered and ethical technology design. i4J’s System Impact Area is at the forefront of utilizing UX methodologies to evaluate and reimagine online court technologies and processes, and is the only program of its kind embedded in a university learning experience.

Learn more about i4J’s System Impact Area.

Graduate Student Courses

i4J’s System Impact Area is driven by our UX4Justice course, which is open to graduate students in any field at both the University of Arizona and the University of Utah. Learn to apply UX research and human-centered design to make real court technologies easier to access and use for the people who need them most.

Learn more about Graduate Student Courses.

Support UX4Justice

There are many opportunities to get involved with UX4Justice. If you’re interested in partnering with UX4Justice on a tech redesign project, if you have subject matter expertise and you’d like to be a guest lecturer, if you are curious about being an alumni coach, or if you’d like to provide financial support, please reach out for more information.

Contact us at info@innovation4justice.org.

Structure: Building tools for policy advocacy

Innovations that advance access to justice can only succeed if the laws on which legal structures are built permit the innovation. Effective policy change requires access to and amplification of accurate and usable information about social justice problems and their ripple effects. i4J’s Structure Impact Area builds tools that aggregate the information advocates need to call for and advance disruptive change in their communities.

Research & Theory of Change

Innovations that advance access to justice can only succeed if the laws on which legal structures are built permit the innovation. A person may be able to get legal help (service), and may be able to utilize court resources (system), but if the laws in their jurisdiction do not afford them adequate legal protection, those service and system improvements cannot be effective: structural change is needed.

Learn more about i4J’s Structure Impact Area.

Graduate Student Courses

i4J’s Structure Impact Area is driven by our Legal Innovation for Policy Advocacy course, which is open to graduate students in any field at both the University of Arizona and the University of Utah.

Learn more about Graduate Student Courses.

Tools for Policy Advocates

i4J’s policy advocacy tools have been used by change-makers across the nation to advance policy change. Try the tools today to advocate change in your community.

Medical Debt Policy Scorecard

Cost of Eviction Calculator

UPL Policy Toolkit

Real-World Impact

To showcase our theory of change in action, here is a sample of i4J’s work in the Service, System, and Structure Impact Areas applied to some of the most urgent civil legal issues impacting low-income Americans: Financial Security, Housing Stability, and Personal Wellbeing.