CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A North Carolina nonprofit is seeking solutions for people who can’t afford legal services.
Legal Aid of North Carolina offers free help to low-income individuals facing issues like evictions and suspended licenses.
The nonprofit gets more than 400,000 calls a year for help but can only get to about a quarter of them. It's now turning to artificial intelligence to help answer calls and reach more people.
Whether it’s connecting someone to help or filling out court documents, Ashley Campbell, CEO of Legal Aid of North Carolina, said artificial intelligence is transforming how they help people.
The group is joining several other legal aid organizations at a conference in Uptown this week on how technology is making their services more accessible.
"There are tools out there, AI-enabled tools, that can allow us to pre-screen and identify why the person is calling, what their legal need is, and then direct them to the right source of help," Scheree Gilchrist, chief innovation officer of Legal Aid of North Carolina said.
Plus, Campbell said more people are clearing their records thanks to an automated tool that fills out expunction petitions.
"Expunction really changes lives," Campbell said. "We recently represented a client who was making $10 an hour and after he got his expunction, he immediately got a better job paying $20 an hour."
With limited resources and funding, technology is helping fill the gap for these nonprofits. However, Gilchrist said they’re being extra cautious with implementing call screening.
"As we’re building it out, we’re ensuring we’re paying attention to things such as bias, and discrimination, and accessibility so that people with disabilities or language access issues-- they're not being unfairly screened out of the process," Gilchrist explained.
President of The Legal Services Corporation Ron Flagg added that AI is being used to break down language barriers in court and to provide online self-help tools for filling out court documents.
"That’s something that happens today but not as much, or as well as it should," Flagg said. "We’re working on those sorts of document assembly tools to help justice in America be more accessible."
Legal Aid of North Carolina is also launching a mobile unit in March where it will bring its services to underserved rural counties in eastern North Carolina with plans to expand it statewide.
WCNC Charlotte is committed to reporting on the many issues facing the communities we serve. We tell the stories of people working to solve persistent social problems. We examine how problems can be solved or addressed to improve the quality of life and make a positive difference. WCNC Charlotte is seeking solutions for you. Send your tips or questions to newstips@wcnc.com.
Contact Julia Kauffman at jkauffman@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.