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Legal Design

Legal Design is an interdisciplinary approach that combines principles of design, law, and technology to improve the accessibility, usability, and effectiveness of legal systems, documents, and services. This emerging field seeks to optimize the user experience in legal contexts, promoting greater understanding of the law and facilitating access to justice. Legal Design integrates methodologies such as user-centered Design Thinking with legal knowledge to redesign legal processes, contracts, policies, and services.

History and Evolution

The term “Legal Design” began to gain popularity in the 2010s, driven by scholars and practitioners seeking to address the complexities and barriers of the legal system. One of its pioneers was Margaret Hagan, director of the Legal Design Lab at Stanford University, who advocated applying user-centered design to solve legal problems. The movement grew in response to the perception that traditional legal documents—such as contracts and policies—were often incomprehensible to laypeople, thereby limiting access to justice.

Starting in 2015, institutions such as the Legal Design Lab and organizations like the International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) began developing frameworks and workshops to integrate design into legal practice. In Europe, the concept also gained traction through initiatives such as the Legal Design Summit in Finland, bringing together designers, lawyers, and technologists to explore practical applications.

Principles and Methodologies

Legal Design is based on several core principles:

User-centeredness: Prioritizes the needs and experiences of end users—whether clients, citizens, or legal professionals—to create intuitive solutions.
Simplicity and clarity: Seeks to reduce legal jargon and use plain language, visuals, and logical structures in documents and processes.
Iteration and prototyping: Uses testing and refinement cycles, similar to Design Thinking, to develop effective legal solutions.
Interdisciplinarity: Combines skills from graphic design, user experience (UX), law, and technology.

The most common methodology is Design Thinking, which includes five stages: empathize (understand the user), define (identify the problem), ideate (generate solutions), prototype (create early versions), and test (evaluate and adjust). These stages are applied, for example, to redesign contracts to make them more readable or to develop digital platforms that guide users through legal procedures.

Applications

Legal Design has diverse applications in the legal field, including:

Legal document design: Creation of contracts, terms of service, and forms using plain language, diagrams, and visual elements. For instance, using infographics in lease agreements to illustrate key clauses.
Legal service design: Improvement of processes such as dispute resolution or claim submission, making them more accessible. Example: online platforms that guide legally inexperienced users in filing small claims.
Organizational design: Restructuring of law firms or legal departments to enhance efficiency and client experience.
Legal education: Development of educational materials that simplify legal concepts for non-specialized audiences.
Access to justice: Creation of tools that empower marginalized communities, such as mobile apps that explain legal rights in plain language.

A notable case is the Creative Contracts project, which transforms legal contracts into visual formats, such as comic strips, to make them understandable for audiences with low levels of legal literacy.

Impact and Criticism

Legal Design has been praised for its ability to bridge the gap between the law and the public, especially in contexts where legal complexity acts as a barrier. Studies have shown that documents designed with Legal Design principles—such as plain language contracts—increase user comprehension and trust by 20–30% compared to traditional formats.

However, the field also faces criticism. Some argue that excessive simplification of legal language can lead to ambiguities or loss of legal precision. Others point out that adopting Legal Design requires significant investment in training and resources, potentially limiting its scalability in underfunded legal systems.

Legal Design in the Global Context

The approach has gained popularity worldwide, with applications tailored to local contexts:

In the United States, the Stanford Legal Design Lab leads innovation projects in courts and legal services.
In Europe, countries like Finland and the Netherlands have integrated Legal Design into the digitization of public legal services.
In Latin America, initiatives in Brazil and Colombia are using Legal Design to address issues such as informal labor contracts and access to human rights.

References

Hagan, M. (2016). Law by Design. Stanford Legal Design Lab. Available at: https://www.lawbydesign.co
Kohlmeier, A., & Klemola, M. (2021). The Legal Design Book: Doing Law in the 21st Century. Ground M, USA.
Kirkham, R. (2023). (Legal Design) Research through Litigation. arXiv:2303.14336. Available at: https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.14336
Saintot, V. M., & Lulić, F. (2022). “Transforming Legal Ecosystems: A Conceptual Framework Derived from Our Practice”. In Liquid Legal – Humanization and the Law. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-14240-6_7
Salata, K. A. (n.d.). Hello World! Let’s Start with the Basics… What is Legal Design?. Kerri A. Salata Legal Professional Corporation. Available at: https://kerriasalata.com

External links

Legal Design Lab
International Legal Technology Association
Legal Design Summit