Book contents
- Equalizing Justice
- Equalizing Justice
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- In Memoriam
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Author’s Note
- Introduction
- Part I Addressing the Crisis in Access to Justice with Legal AI
- 1 The Global Access to Justice Crisis
- 2 The Language Gap
- 3 The Needs of Civil Litigants
- Part II Automating Legal Tasks with AI and Other Technologies
- Part III Promising Applications
- Part IV Today’s Access to Justice Systems
- Part V Barriers and Risks
- Part VI Recommendations
- Index
2 - The Language Gap
from Part I - Addressing the Crisis in Access to Justice with Legal AI
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 July 2026
Book contents
- Equalizing Justice
- Equalizing Justice
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- In Memoriam
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Author’s Note
- Introduction
- Part I Addressing the Crisis in Access to Justice with Legal AI
- 1 The Global Access to Justice Crisis
- 2 The Language Gap
- 3 The Needs of Civil Litigants
- Part II Automating Legal Tasks with AI and Other Technologies
- Part III Promising Applications
- Part IV Today’s Access to Justice Systems
- Part V Barriers and Risks
- Part VI Recommendations
- Index
Summary
The language gap is a fundamental barrier preventing unrepresented litigants from understanding their legal rights and defenses. The chapter identifies three components: open texture, which reflects the inherent ambiguity and vagueness of natural language; legalese, characterized by its specialized vocabulary and structural peculiarities; and the abstraction of legal predicates, which require translation between everyday facts and legal concepts.
The analysis demonstrates how legal language functions as a distinct system where common words acquire uncommon meanings, precision conflicts with clarity, and flexible terms create interpretive challenges.
Recent advances in large language models offer promising tools for bridging this gap by providing translation capabilities between legal language and ordinary discourse; however, significant challenges remain for certain implementations regarding accuracy, hallucination risks, and unauthorized practice of law restrictions.
Keywords
Information
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Equalizing JusticeHarnessing AI for Litigants Without Lawyers, pp. 20 - 33Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2026
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