Access to Justice in the Era of Digital Courts

Abstract

The rapid digitalization of judicial systems—accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic—has transformed how litigants file cases, attend hearings, and resolve disputes. Online dispute resolution (ODR) platforms, remote videoconferencing, e-filing systems, and artificial intelligence (AI) tools are increasingly embedded in court operations worldwide. While these innovations promise to reduce costs, expedite case resolution, and extend judicial services to previously underserved populations, a growing body of scholarship documents persistent and, in some respects, newly created barriers to access. This paper synthesizes recent literature on digital courts and access to justice, organizing findings around four themes: efficiency and cost reduction, digital divides and representational asymmetries, procedural justice and perceived fairness, and the emerging role of AI in judicial processes. The review reveals that most existing research is jurisdiction-specific, methodologically fragmented, and rarely integrates technological, procedural, and equity dimensions within a single analytical framework. This paper addresses that gap by proposing an integrated conceptual framework—the Digital Access to Justice (DA2J) framework—that evaluates digital court reforms along three interdependent axes: technological accessibility, procedural legitimacy, and distributive equity. The paper does not present new empirical data; rather, it synthesizes existing evidence to argue that digital courts can only be considered access-enhancing when improvements in efficiency are not achieved at the expense of fairness and inclusion for self-represented and marginalized litigants. Implications for court administrators, policymakers, and future empirical researchers are discussed.