Background

This year LSC will fund over $3.4 million in projects that leverage technology to meet the legal needs of low-income Americans. These projects use a broad range of technologies -- including mobile, cloud computing,  big data, and automated document assembly -- to make the delivery of legal services in the United States more efficient and effective.

The LSC Technology Initiative Grants (TIG) program emerged from the combination of a longstanding need to provide some assistance to the large percentage of persons who LSC funded programs cannot fully represent and a new resource- the communication and information capacities produced by the technological revolution. Most legal needs surveys in the United States indicate that no more than 20% of low-income people with civil legal problems are able to get help. The unprecedented powers of the Internet, personal computers and mobile devices -- combined with the development of high-quality legal information and tools -- can broaden the reach of the valuable work conducted by legal services practitioners.

Seeing this potential, Congress authorized funding for the Technology Initiative Grants (TIG) program beginning in 2000. Through 2012, LSC has awarded over 525 grants totaling more than $40 million; there have been over 800 applications to the TIG program. 

TIG funding has provided LSC with a remarkable opportunity to explore new ways to serve eligible persons and to help build legal aid programs' capacities. It has supported projects to develop, test and replicate technologies that improve client access to high quality legal information and pro se assistance. It has also helped programs enhance their overall information technology infrastructure.