New Data for Access to Justice: An Assessment of the value of Reddit data
Date
2024
Authors
Gower, Katherine
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Abstract
Canada has an “access to justice” problem. Research shows that most Canadians will experience a legal problem in a three-year period, and less than half of them will resolve their problem in that time. The justice system wants to improve this situation, but it needs evidence and data regarding what problems people have, and the impact of any changes made, in order to do so. In this thesis, I assess the empirical data available, introduce a new form of data, and provide an assessment of both. The new data comes from the social media platform Reddit, and it was uncovered and collected by the interdisciplinary team at a new incubator lab - the Justice Data and Design Lab (the JDD Lab), which I directed.
The JDD Lab used machine learning and artificial intelligence to locate, collect and analyze Reddit data from a public “subreddit” regarding legal advice for Canadians. The data are first-person posts which represent a unique opportunity to hear descriptions from real people who find themselves facing what they either know or suspect is a legal problem and reach out online for help. Analysis shows Reddit data clusters into some of the same topic areas used in Everyday Legal Needs surveys, but also generates new clusters which represent real-time concerns that the public are experiencing.
This thesis juxtaposes Everyday Legal Needs data and Reddit data to assess their strengths and weaknesses. It concludes that if the justice system is serious about taking a person-centred approach to improving access to justice, then Reddit data is an essential complement to Everyday Legal Needs survey work.
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Keywords
Access to Justice, Data, Evidence, Design, Experimental