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Meaningful Play 2014 at Michigan State University

Session Information

TitleGames for Legal Services
Presenter(s)Lien Tran and Dan Jackson
TimeSaturday, October 18, 10:15a-11:15a
LocationLake Michigan
FormatPanel
DescriptionThere is a continuing crisis in the American legal system. Many people turn to the Internet searching for free legal services or advice because they cannot afford to hire a lawyer. The number of unrepresented individuals continues to increase and legal aid organizations are only allowed to work with limited legal issues for individuals who fall in the poverty line or below a certain threshold for family income. This leaves a large portion of the public without affordable legal assistance. While organizations like iCivics create games related to the justice system and legislative process, these games are focused more on civics education for school-aged children, rather than reaching out to the public at large. This panel looks at how we can use games and gamification to educate and empower the public to learn the law, learn their legal rights, and to find and connect with resources to increase access to justice.

Lien Tran is a game designer and Assistant Professor at the University of Miami. She has started an initiative, Amiguia Americana, to provide interactive, game-based resources for unaccompanied immigrant minors (UIMs), youth who may have been taken into custody by the government because of their undocumented status. Her first immigration project, Toma El Paso (Make a Move in English), is a board game currently being used by ICAN (a team of community volunteers who deliver a tailored curriculum to UIMs) with UIMs in a juvenile shelter in Miami, Florida, to teach them about the shelter release process. Dan Jackson, the Director of Northeastern University's Nulawlab, is developing a game related to legal services (one that is a nominee for an international access to justice award).

Issues that will be raised by the panelists include (1) designing games around (often complex) legal issues, (2) funding for legal games, (3) making the law "fun", (4) marketing and publishing legal games, (5) addressing push-back from lawyers and others in the legal profession, (6) collaborating with lawyers and other legal professionals and legal services providers, and (7) working around the framework of lawyer's ethical rules and rules of professional conduct, including avoiding UPL (unauthorized practice of law) in game design.

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