{"id":162833,"date":"2026-09-14T10:38:44","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T18:38:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/09\/14\/ai-for-new-jersey-public-defenders-solving-the-a2j-problem-one-bite-at-a-time\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T10:38:44","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T18:38:44","slug":"ai-for-new-jersey-public-defenders-solving-the-a2j-problem-one-bite-at-a-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/09\/14\/ai-for-new-jersey-public-defenders-solving-the-a2j-problem-one-bite-at-a-time\/","title":{"rendered":"AI For New Jersey Public Defenders:\u00a0Solving The A2J Problem One\u00a0Bite At A Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Want to make a dent in the access-to-justice problem?\u00a0Stop\u00a0preaching\u00a0and wringing your hands over how bad it is and start looking for a solution, even if\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0just a start.\u00a0Which is\u00a0exactly what the\u00a0New Jersey Office of the Public Defender<\/a>\u00a0(NJOPD)\u00a0recently did<\/a>\u00a0in creating an innovative AI platform for that state\u2019s public defenders.<\/p>\n

The Beleaguered PDs<\/strong><\/p>\n

Perhaps\u00a0no place\u00a0does\u00a0the access-to-justice gap\u00a0seem\u00a0so stark\u00a0as\u00a0with\u00a0the besieged\u00a0public defenders. So many cases. So much time needed to talk to\u00a0and hand hold\u00a0clients who have\u00a0too\u00a0little means and\u00a0too\u00a0little sophistication\u00a0to understand what\u2019s happening. So much time needed to earn their trust. So much time evaluating cases\u00a0and negotiating with prosecutors, prosecutors who have more resources and are often paid more.<\/p>\n

Even\u00a0more than any other area of the law, public defenders are\u00a0all about<\/a>\u00a0dealing with\u00a0people: people with serious problems facing not just fines but often imprisonment, sometimes for a life. Yet public defenders are notoriously overworked, underfunded, and underpaid.\u00a0It\u2019s a recipe for burnout.\u00a0I\u2019ve heard it from PDs\u00a0over and over. I\u2019ve seen young lawyers full of passion and energy get beat down with the never-ending work and tedium. And I\u2019ve watched prosecutors taking advantage.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s that pesky law thing. Public defenders\u00a0have to\u00a0do what all lawyers do. Research. Write\u00a0briefs. Make arguments based on the law.\u00a0And, of course, take care of administrative matters. Administrative matters like keeping the office going. Keeping people from\u00a0flaming\u00a0out\u00a0or worse.\u00a0Trying to keep them\u00a0satisfied with their\u00a0jobs\u00a0when they face enormous and often high-pressure case loads.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And that AI revolution that could reduce\u00a0some of\u00a0the mundane and tedious work? So far, it\u2019s\u00a0more or less\u00a0left\u00a0public defenders behind. Programs that would be specifically tailored for legal\u00a0in general and public defenders\u00a0in\u00a0particular\u00a0cost too much money, money that PDs don\u2019t have. It\u2019s not that public defenders don\u2019t need AI. They do, perhaps desperately. It\u2019s just that they have\u00a0limited\u00a0financial\u00a0resources<\/a>\u00a0and,\u00a0what they do have,\u00a0often needs to be used\u00a0elsewhere\u00a0to shore up more pressing\u00a0challenges.<\/p>\n

And as for the\u00a0public AI platforms\u00a0like ChatGPT and\u00a0Claude and the like, their use\u00a0by PDs\u00a0carries\u00a0the same risks as they do for all lawyers: confidentiality, privacy, and security.\u00a0And those risks are compounded when you are dealing with people\u2019s\u00a0lives and freedoms.<\/p>\n

The New Jersey Pro<\/strong>gram<\/strong><\/p>\n

The\u00a0NJOPD\u00a0realized\u00a0the practical problems\u00a0public defenders\u00a0have with being able to get and use\u00a0AI\u00a0and came up with an innovative\u00a0yet practical tool. A tool\u00a0that may not do\u00a0everything, but it does some\u00a0things\u00a0to make the state\u2019s PD jobs easier.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To understand how, you first\u00a0need to know\u00a0that, unlike many states, the\u00a0NJOPD\u00a0is a statewide office. It is responsible for and in charge of public defenders throughout the state. This is unique since in most states, public defenders\u2019 offices are run county by county with\u00a0more\u00a0limited funding.\u00a0Most\u00a0are\u00a0small offices\u00a0that run autonomously and\u00a0independently.\u00a0The\u00a0NJOPD, on the other\u00a0hand, is\u00a0comprised of 1,300 attorneys in some 66 offices. It was one of the first public defender offices formed in the United\u00a0States,\u00a0so it has some\u00a0experience\u00a0dealing with and\u00a0understanding\u00a0public defender issues.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And\u00a0reportedly<\/a>\u00a0it typically handles over 100,000\u00a0cases per year, not just criminal cases but also\u00a0juvenile,\u00a0family,\u00a0mental\u00a0health, and\u00a0appellate matters. As a result, it has a database of over 3,000 briefs, 200 internal documents, and a variety of other materials.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Looking at\u00a0all this, the\u00a0NJOPD\u00a0saw opportunity. Opportunity for the use of artificial intelligence to\u00a0enable access to all these briefs and other materials for all public defenders within the state.\u00a0But the creation of this kind of tool didn\u2019t just happen. It took some innovative thinking.<\/p>\n

The Program Development<\/strong><\/p>\n

Certainly,\u00a0coming up with this kind of AI tool\u00a0was not something\u00a0NJOPD\u00a0was qualified to take on by itself.\u00a0But instead of throwing up its hands,\u00a0it looked for partners to help develop\u00a0aprogram. It first went to\u00a0something called the\u00a0New Jersey Innovation\u00a0Authority<\/a>. This\u00a0Authority\u00a0is also somewhat unique in that it is one of the first truly state\u00a0government\u00a0funded\u00a0innovation offices,\u00a0and functions\u00a0similar to\u00a0a chief innovation officer in a firm,\u00a0only on a much broader scale.\u00a0It looks for ways to\u00a0encourage,\u00a0create,\u00a0and implement innovation for\u00a0entities and individuals\u00a0within the state. And\u00a0with a 2027 budget of\u00a0over $23 million\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0got the\u00a0financial wherewithal\u00a0to do some things.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Innovation\u00a0Authority\u00a0was excited about the idea of creating an AI platform for public defenders and it\u00a0looped in Princeton University.\u00a0A\u00a0Princeton University\u00a0professor\u00a0and research fellow\u00a0studied public defender workflows to see where AI could help. They\u00a0also\u00a0determined that a customized AI\u00a0tool\u00a0was needed to\u00a0meet\u00a0these workflow needs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And they decided to start with a\u00a0tool which would enable public defenders to search the\u00a0existing\u00a0briefs and other materials using natural language. This enables a public defender in any New Jersey office to have access to past efforts,\u00a0experiences,\u00a0and expertise\u00a0of public defenders throughout the state.\u00a0PDs who have been there and done that.<\/p>\n

The tool is not necessarily a brief writing or pure legal research tool\u00a0in and of itself. Instead, it is a mechanism to obtain access to materials developed by public defenders that are already in existence.\u00a0Just like more expensive AI systems enable lawyers in a firm to quickly find and\u00a0use previously\u00a0prepared documents to help with their work.<\/p>\n

The partnership is, however, continuing to work on other tools to do things like aid investigators and help support administrative personnel in the public defender offices.\u00a0More to come.<\/p>\n

Thinking Differently<\/strong><\/p>\n

What is so refreshing about what the NJOPD has done is how it\u00a0maximized\u00a0opportunities\u00a0by working with other entities and\u00a0starting with\u00a0something that appeared to\u00a0be easiest to tackle.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Granted,\u00a0the NJOPD\u00a0had some\u00a0advantages\u00a0that most states do not have.\u00a0Having a\u00a0statewide public defender system\u00a0provides the organization and\u00a0material to make something like this feasible.\u00a0Individual public defender offices typically\u00a0would\u00a0not have\u00a0the skill set or money to create an AI program\u00a0similar to what New Jersey has done.\u00a0And having\u00a0the\u00a0Innovation\u00a0Authority\u00a0and a\u00a0world-renowned\u00a0university willing to pitch in didn\u2019t hurt.<\/p>\n

But that doesn\u2019t detract from the fact the NJOPD saw an\u00a0opportunity\u00a0to\u00a0help its public defenders and make a dent in the A2J crisis. It is just these sorts of ideas\u00a0along with\u00a0those of other low-cost legal AI services\u00a0like\u00a0that provided<\/a>\u00a0by\u00a0Descrybe<\/a>\u00a0that\u00a0give some hope for\u00a0helping to\u00a0solve\u00a0the A2J\u00a0problem.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a\u00a0problem\u00a0that\u00a0won\u2019t be solved by\u00a0just\u00a0throwing money at\u00a0it. It won\u2019t be solved by thinking we have to boil the ocean before we take any steps at all. It will\u00a0only\u00a0be solved by innovating, thinking, by partnering with other institutions like universities and think tanks, and starting small, just like the\u00a0NJOPD\u00a0has done.\u00a0It is\u00a0a\u00a0roadmap\u00a0for\u00a0better\u00a0serving the legal needs of those that do not have the resources to otherwise obtain them.\u00a0More creative thinking.\u00a0Less speech-making. Less\u00a0hand-wringing.\u00a0Taking on the\u00a0A2J\u00a0elephant\u00a0one bite<\/a>\u00a0at a time.<\/p>\n

\n

Stephen Embry is a lawyer, speaker, blogger, and writer. He publishes\u00a0TechLaw Crossroads<\/a>, a blog devoted to the examination of the tension between technology, the law, and the practice of law.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

The post AI For New Jersey Public Defenders:\u00a0Solving The A2J Problem One\u00a0Bite At A Time<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

Want to make a dent in the access-to-justice problem?\u00a0Stop\u00a0preaching\u00a0and wringing your hands over how bad it is and start looking for a solution, even if\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0just a start.\u00a0Which is\u00a0exactly what the\u00a0New Jersey Office of the Public Defender<\/a>\u00a0(NJOPD)\u00a0recently did<\/a>\u00a0in creating an innovative AI platform for that state\u2019s public defenders.<\/p>\n

The Beleaguered PDs<\/strong><\/p>\n

Perhaps\u00a0no place\u00a0does\u00a0the access-to-justice gap\u00a0seem\u00a0so stark\u00a0as\u00a0with\u00a0the besieged\u00a0public defenders. So many cases. So much time needed to talk to\u00a0and hand hold\u00a0clients who have\u00a0too\u00a0little means and\u00a0too\u00a0little sophistication\u00a0to understand what\u2019s happening. So much time needed to earn their trust. So much time evaluating cases\u00a0and negotiating with prosecutors, prosecutors who have more resources and are often paid more.<\/p>\n

Even\u00a0more than any other area of the law, public defenders are\u00a0all about<\/a>\u00a0dealing with\u00a0people: people with serious problems facing not just fines but often imprisonment, sometimes for a life. Yet public defenders are notoriously overworked, underfunded, and underpaid.\u00a0It\u2019s a recipe for burnout.\u00a0I\u2019ve heard it from PDs\u00a0over and over. I\u2019ve seen young lawyers full of passion and energy get beat down with the never-ending work and tedium. And I\u2019ve watched prosecutors taking advantage.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s that pesky law thing. Public defenders\u00a0have to\u00a0do what all lawyers do. Research. Write\u00a0briefs. Make arguments based on the law.\u00a0And, of course, take care of administrative matters. Administrative matters like keeping the office going. Keeping people from\u00a0flaming\u00a0out\u00a0or worse.\u00a0Trying to keep them\u00a0satisfied with their\u00a0jobs\u00a0when they face enormous and often high-pressure case loads.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And that AI revolution that could reduce\u00a0some of\u00a0the mundane and tedious work? So far, it\u2019s\u00a0more or less\u00a0left\u00a0public defenders behind. Programs that would be specifically tailored for legal\u00a0in general and public defenders\u00a0in\u00a0particular\u00a0cost too much money, money that PDs don\u2019t have. It\u2019s not that public defenders don\u2019t need AI. They do, perhaps desperately. It\u2019s just that they have\u00a0limited\u00a0financial\u00a0resources<\/a>\u00a0and,\u00a0what they do have,\u00a0often needs to be used\u00a0elsewhere\u00a0to shore up more pressing\u00a0challenges.<\/p>\n

And as for the\u00a0public AI platforms\u00a0like ChatGPT and\u00a0Claude and the like, their use\u00a0by PDs\u00a0carries\u00a0the same risks as they do for all lawyers: confidentiality, privacy, and security.\u00a0And those risks are compounded when you are dealing with people\u2019s\u00a0lives and freedoms.<\/p>\n

The New Jersey Pro<\/strong>gram<\/strong><\/p>\n

The\u00a0NJOPD\u00a0realized\u00a0the practical problems\u00a0public defenders\u00a0have with being able to get and use\u00a0AI\u00a0and came up with an innovative\u00a0yet practical tool. A tool\u00a0that may not do\u00a0everything, but it does some\u00a0things\u00a0to make the state\u2019s PD jobs easier.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To understand how, you first\u00a0need to know\u00a0that, unlike many states, the\u00a0NJOPD\u00a0is a statewide office. It is responsible for and in charge of public defenders throughout the state. This is unique since in most states, public defenders\u2019 offices are run county by county with\u00a0more\u00a0limited funding.\u00a0Most\u00a0are\u00a0small offices\u00a0that run autonomously and\u00a0independently.\u00a0The\u00a0NJOPD, on the other\u00a0hand, is\u00a0comprised of 1,300 attorneys in some 66 offices. It was one of the first public defender offices formed in the United\u00a0States,\u00a0so it has some\u00a0experience\u00a0dealing with and\u00a0understanding\u00a0public defender issues.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And\u00a0reportedly<\/a>\u00a0it typically handles over 100,000\u00a0cases per year, not just criminal cases but also\u00a0juvenile,\u00a0family,\u00a0mental\u00a0health, and\u00a0appellate matters. As a result, it has a database of over 3,000 briefs, 200 internal documents, and a variety of other materials.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Looking at\u00a0all this, the\u00a0NJOPD\u00a0saw opportunity. Opportunity for the use of artificial intelligence to\u00a0enable access to all these briefs and other materials for all public defenders within the state.\u00a0But the creation of this kind of tool didn\u2019t just happen. It took some innovative thinking.<\/p>\n

The Program Development<\/strong><\/p>\n

Certainly,\u00a0coming up with this kind of AI tool\u00a0was not something\u00a0NJOPD\u00a0was qualified to take on by itself.\u00a0But instead of throwing up its hands,\u00a0it looked for partners to help develop\u00a0aprogram. It first went to\u00a0something called the\u00a0New Jersey Innovation\u00a0Authority<\/a>. This\u00a0Authority\u00a0is also somewhat unique in that it is one of the first truly state\u00a0government\u00a0funded\u00a0innovation offices,\u00a0and functions\u00a0similar to\u00a0a chief innovation officer in a firm,\u00a0only on a much broader scale.\u00a0It looks for ways to\u00a0encourage,\u00a0create,\u00a0and implement innovation for\u00a0entities and individuals\u00a0within the state. And\u00a0with a 2027 budget of\u00a0over $23 million\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0got the\u00a0financial wherewithal\u00a0to do some things.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Innovation\u00a0Authority\u00a0was excited about the idea of creating an AI platform for public defenders and it\u00a0looped in Princeton University.\u00a0A\u00a0Princeton University\u00a0professor\u00a0and research fellow\u00a0studied public defender workflows to see where AI could help. They\u00a0also\u00a0determined that a customized AI\u00a0tool\u00a0was needed to\u00a0meet\u00a0these workflow needs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And they decided to start with a\u00a0tool which would enable public defenders to search the\u00a0existing\u00a0briefs and other materials using natural language. This enables a public defender in any New Jersey office to have access to past efforts,\u00a0experiences,\u00a0and expertise\u00a0of public defenders throughout the state.\u00a0PDs who have been there and done that.<\/p>\n

The tool is not necessarily a brief writing or pure legal research tool\u00a0in and of itself. Instead, it is a mechanism to obtain access to materials developed by public defenders that are already in existence.\u00a0Just like more expensive AI systems enable lawyers in a firm to quickly find and\u00a0use previously\u00a0prepared documents to help with their work.<\/p>\n

The partnership is, however, continuing to work on other tools to do things like aid investigators and help support administrative personnel in the public defender offices.\u00a0More to come.<\/p>\n

Thinking Differently<\/strong><\/p>\n

What is so refreshing about what the NJOPD has done is how it\u00a0maximized\u00a0opportunities\u00a0by working with other entities and\u00a0starting with\u00a0something that appeared to\u00a0be easiest to tackle.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Granted,\u00a0the NJOPD\u00a0had some\u00a0advantages\u00a0that most states do not have.\u00a0Having a\u00a0statewide public defender system\u00a0provides the organization and\u00a0material to make something like this feasible.\u00a0Individual public defender offices typically\u00a0would\u00a0not have\u00a0the skill set or money to create an AI program\u00a0similar to what New Jersey has done.\u00a0And having\u00a0the\u00a0Innovation\u00a0Authority\u00a0and a\u00a0world-renowned\u00a0university willing to pitch in didn\u2019t hurt.<\/p>\n

But that doesn\u2019t detract from the fact the NJOPD saw an\u00a0opportunity\u00a0to\u00a0help its public defenders and make a dent in the A2J crisis. It is just these sorts of ideas\u00a0along with\u00a0those of other low-cost legal AI services\u00a0like\u00a0that provided<\/a>\u00a0by\u00a0Descrybe<\/a>\u00a0that\u00a0give some hope for\u00a0helping to\u00a0solve\u00a0the A2J\u00a0problem.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a\u00a0problem\u00a0that\u00a0won\u2019t be solved by\u00a0just\u00a0throwing money at\u00a0it. It won\u2019t be solved by thinking we have to boil the ocean before we take any steps at all. It will\u00a0only\u00a0be solved by innovating, thinking, by partnering with other institutions like universities and think tanks, and starting small, just like the\u00a0NJOPD\u00a0has done.\u00a0It is\u00a0a\u00a0roadmap\u00a0for\u00a0better\u00a0serving the legal needs of those that do not have the resources to otherwise obtain them.\u00a0More creative thinking.\u00a0Less speech-making. Less\u00a0hand-wringing.\u00a0Taking on the\u00a0A2J\u00a0elephant\u00a0one bite<\/a>\u00a0at a time.<\/p>\n

\n

Stephen Embry is a lawyer, speaker, blogger, and writer. He publishes\u00a0TechLaw Crossroads<\/a>, a blog devoted to the examination of the tension between technology, the law, and the practice of law.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Want to make a dent in the access-to-justice problem?\u00a0Stop\u00a0preaching\u00a0and wringing your hands over how bad it is and start looking for a solution, even if\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0just a start.\u00a0Which is\u00a0exactly what the\u00a0New Jersey Office of the Public Defender\u00a0(NJOPD)\u00a0recently did\u00a0in creating an innovative AI platform for that state\u2019s public defenders. The Beleaguered PDs Perhaps\u00a0no place\u00a0does\u00a0the access-to-justice gap\u00a0seem\u00a0so stark\u00a0as\u00a0with\u00a0the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":162834,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-162833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}