The University of Michigan Law Quadrangle magazine covered court technologies that provided access to the public during the pandemic. The magazine talked to Matterhorn founder, J.J. Prescott, Matterhorn CEO MJ Cartwright, and Chief Judge Andrea Larkin of the 54B District Court in Lansing, Michigan.
For too long, courts have been conceptualized as physical locations rather than a “nexus of services … a set of people or tools or processes that help to resolve disputes.”
From “Can COVID-19 Help Expand Access to Justice” by J. Lester Feder in the Law Quadrangle
In many cases, Prescott says, there’s no good reason the parties to a dispute need to meet face to face, or even engage on a matter at the exact same time. Traffic tickets, evictions, and other civil matters are far more easily resolved online, where parties can lay out their cases in writing. This doesn’t require anyone to take time off work, and it can even help remove bias from cases, since it’s possible for the dispute to be adjudicated without judges ever seeing what someone looks like.
Read the full article on the Law Quadrangle website. The section on Matterhorn is under the “What is a Court Anyway” heading.