LawPulse

The Illinois court system’s help website introduces a chatbot to provide visitors with quick answers to basic questions.

The help website for the Illinois Courts system has added a chatbot assistant named Lex to provide fast, accurate responses to queries. Court officials say Lex will be especially useful to users who need answers to questions outside of normal business hours.

Debuted in 2021, ilcourthelp.gov lists a handful of official court websites that address basic answers the public may have about court forms, e-filing, appeals, court addresses, and options for remote court appearances. The site also encourages the public to call, text, or submit a request form to “court guides” who are employed by the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts (AOIC) and, who, in many cases, provide answers within 24 hours.

Lex is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and is powered by Zendesk, a private customer-support platform.

Before launching Lex in late January, the AOIC selected a few community organizations, including Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, to give the chatbot a whirl. The organizations were selected after an application process. Trinity, along with the other partners, received funding to recruit and compensate participants, says Avani Patel, an attorney and senior supervising program manager for the AOIC’s Access to Justice Division.

As a result of the testing, the AOIC added instructions, adjusted color schemes for improved accessibility, and simplified Lex’s language, Patel says.

While Lex does not currently rely on generative artificial intelligence (AI), Patel says the possibility of equipping Lex with AI is something the AOIC will evaluate.

“We are exploring ways to leverage AI to make the ‘type a message’ function more user-friendly,” Patel says. “Additionally, we are assessing whether a text-to-speech feature in the future could be integrated into the platform to improve accessibility.”

To access Lex, visit ilcourthelp.gov and click on the black speech bubble inside a blue box on the lower-right corner of the page, or click the “Chat with Lex, your virtual court guide” pop-up message nearby.

An attorney’s take on Lex

The Illinois Bar Journal asked John E. Brennock, chair of ISBA’s Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services, to spend a few minutes interacting with Lex.

“Lex is a useful tool for pro se litigants to be able to ask general questions about the court process and be directed to curated responses and appropriate court forms,” says Brennock, an attorney with Diaz Anselmo & Associates P.A. in Naperville.

“I found the preset prompt options to be clear and the system easy to use,” Brennock says. “After selecting some prompts and answering some questions, the system links to helpful outside legal resources and invites the user to submit a message to the [AOIC] court guides for further help. As long as those links remain active and the outside resource pages are kept current, the chatbot will be a good resource tool for pro se parties and for attorneys generally.”

Brennock says Lex provided better answers when he began with its suggested starting prompts. When he attempted to ask his own question—about pleadings in Will County—Lex responded that its “type-a-message” feature is still in development and encouraged Brennock to either start over or fill out a question form for a court guide.

“It appears that the chatbot will provide links to general legal information and court-approved forms, but not county-specific information,” Brennock says. “Yet, this may be an especially useful tool for pro se litigants at the courthouse, as they can access the system on their cell phone. It appears the chatbot is configured to be compatible with mobile devices.” 

An Illinois Courts announcement about Lex, dated January 28, states the AOIC “will continue to build out Lex and add more features to enhance its usability.”

Pete Sherman is managing editor of the Illinois Bar Journal.
psherman@isba.org