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9 - How Should Automated Legal Guidance Evolve?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 April 2025

Joshua D. Blank
Affiliation:
University of California, Irvine
Leigh Osofsky
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
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Summary

As Chapter 4 demonstrated, automated legal guidance often enables the government to present complex law as though it is simple without actually engaging in simplification of the underlying law. While this approach offers advantages in terms of administrative efficiency and ease of use by the public, it also causes the government to present the law as simpler than it is, leading to less precise advice and potentially inaccurate legal positions. As the use of automated legal guidance by government agencies is likely to grow in the future, a number of policy interventions are needed. This chapter offers multiple detailed policy recommendations for federal agencies that have introduced, or may introduce, chatbots, virtual assistants, and other automated tools to communicate the law to the public. Our recommendations are organized into five general categories: (1) transparency; (2) reliance; (3) disclaimers; (4) process; and (5) accessibility, inclusion, and equity.

Type
Chapter
Information
Automated Agencies
The Transformation of Government Guidance
, pp. 170 - 189
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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