Computers and the administration of justice

Abstract

Lawyers and judges have been thinking about using computers to help in their work at least since 1950 and active research is only a little more recent. Today there are several working research projects going on across the country and at least one of them has been productive of an extremely useful working product as well as theoretical information. There is a Special Committee on Electronic Data Retrieval of the American Bar Association and it is no longer accurate to say that most lawyers have never heard of the idea. On the other hand it would be misleading to suggest that active participants in this field constitute more than a tiny fraction of even that minority of lawyers and judges who are inclined toward theoretical speculation. The momentum is such however that even in the most depressive swings of my personality cycle I no longer suspect that it is all a fantasy. If Western industrial civilization does not destroy itself, computer technology with its concomitant theory will become an integrated instrument in the American legal system and will make significant contributions to the administration of justice.