Increasing Access to Legal Information

University of Washington School of Law third-year student Abigael Diaz has been named one of UniCourt‘s five winners in its national Legal Research & Writing Competition. A platform for retrieving state and federal court data, the company kicked off the inaugural competition in January as part of its efforts to increase access to legal data. Winners were announced on April 13. The contest invited current law students to submit informative case summaries to be published online.

Diaz entered the competition because she went to law school to make the law more accessible, especially at the intersection of technology, the rights of creators and business. “I want to use my legal and business education to empower women and nonbinary BIPOC creators to navigate the complexities of the legal system and build successful businesses that utilize their creative talents,” she says.

In addition to having an interview published on UniCourt’s blog, Diaz’s case summary and those of other winners are posted on the company’s homepage, in its trending news section, on its Legal News page, and on its blog. UniCourt’s website receives 2 to 3 million views per month. The company will also consider winners for a paid internship.

“I know Abigael Diaz from my Legal Information Technology class,” says Digital Innovation Librarian Jonathan Franklin, J.D., who works in the UW Gallagher Law Library. “She is a credit to this group of UW law students. It’s exciting to see her taking the initiative, applying her considerable skills and using data and technology to increase access in the legal system.”