This document discusses tools that can help people make choices. It describes how choices involve weighing multiple options and factors from different perspectives, which makes choices complex. An ideal choice management system would help people gather relevant information on their options and factors to consider, see how options compare on important factors, and get input from others. The document outlines features such systems could have and information people want when making choices. It argues we can make better choices with mindfulness and by managing choices as projects. Technology offers potential to develop new tools that support the choice-making process.

1. Tools of Choice
Marc Lauritsen
January 2015

2. This Session
The World of Choice
(Choosing Tools and Other Things)
Audience Participation:
Reflect on a Recent Decision
Discuss
Choice Management
Tools for Choosing

3. Law-related Choices
Clients and Self-helpers
• Ways to deal with legal
problems
• Lawyer/firm selection
• Business decisions
– Entity type
– Hiring/firing
– Employee/contractor
– Compliance, risk
management
• Negotiation and settlement
Professionals
• What position to take, what
advice to give
• Case triage
• Litigation
– Where to file
– What witnesses to call
– What arguments to make
• Business
– What software or hardware
– What vendors/consultants
– Who to hire

4. Lawyering Tasks
• Client counseling
• Document drafting
• Contract negotiation
• Project management
• Dispute resolution
• Litigation strategy
• Advocacy
• Adjudication

5. Legal Services Contexts
• Which types of cases to accept
• Which particular clients to help, with what
forms of assistance
• Case strategy – what claims to make where;
what arguments/evidence to emphasize
• Contract/settlement negotiation – which
package of terms lets you ‘get to yes’
• Which office technology to adopt

6. A Recent Decision
Shhh ….

7. What makes a good decision?
• Consideration of all relevant options
• Consideration of all relevant factors
• Consideration of all relevant interests and
perspectives
• Open, mindful, respectful process
• Appropriate focus and weighing
• . . .

8. What makes a bad decision?
• Missed options
• Missed factors
• Missed interests and perspectives
• Closed, unmindful, non-respectful process
• Inappropriate focus and weighing
• . . .

9. Problems we encounter
• People have difficulty making good
choices.
– Hard to compare options, balance
considerations.
– Many procrastinate or are tormented.
– Some make snap decisions without enough
data and deliberation.
– Misinformation, miscommunication.
• Hard to help others make good choices.
– Data overload. Time famine.

10. Decisional Traps
• Availability
• Confirmation bias
• Inattentional blindness
• Overconfidence
• Conjunction fallacy
• Statistical errors
• Loss aversion
• Endowment effect
• Sunk cost
• Social proof
• Subliminal influences
• Targeted ads

11. Case
management
Change
management
Knowledge
management
Project
management
Choice
management

12. Twelve Mantras
• Wake Up
• Embrace the Complexity
• Separate the Separable
• Be Humble
• Plan the Work
• Work the Plan
• Consider Multiple Perspectives
• Tap the Team
• Enlist the Contenders
• Tool Up
• Focus
• Stay Open

13. How can technology help?

14. Tools & Methods
• Gathering info
– Vendor literature
– Demos
– Consultants
– Calls to peers
– Web research
– List serves (LStech)
– References
– LSNTAP
– . . .
• Deciding & justifying
– Checklists
– Pros & Cons
– Word tables
– Whiteboards
– Spreadsheets
– . . .
14

15. Hi folks, I am looking into a new case management system for the Law Center. I'd
like to do some initial research into our options and pricing as we are budgeting for
2013. If any of you really love or hate the systems you're using, I'd appreciate a
quick note with the name of the program and anything you can tell me about what
you particularly like or dislike about it. You can email me at … . Thanks for your
help! Apologies to those who receive this request over multiple lists.
We are considering using Vidyo as an office web
conferencing solution over Polycom. Has anyone in the
community used Vidyo as a solution?
If so what is your feedback/ pros and cons.
Hi there- we are looking at switching to AppRiver’s Secure Tide or
Mimecast for anti- spam after a disastrous Postini/Google switch.
Anyone using either one? And like them or not!
Has anyone … ?

16. 16

17. Aspen Workflow LawBase Practice Manager
(RealLegal)
Practice Master Time Matters
The product
Essential features
Tickler
Conflict checking
Remote access
Reporting
Other product factors
Document mgt
Timekeeping
Custom intake screens
Integration with DA
Relevance to graduates’
practices
Security options
Vendor stability
User community
Other law schools?
Pre-built modules?
Cost
(product & any newly
required software)
The services
Customization
Training
Cost
Other notes

18. 18

19. Databases?
Document assembly?
Guided interviews?
Expert systems?
What about

20. Databases are great for
• Gathering, storing, and retrieving information
• Searching and finding information
• Not just numbers and texts, but images,
sounds, video, …
• Statistics, reports

21. Document assembly is great for
• Creating customized documents and forms
• Intelligent questionnaires and checklists
• Information gathering
• Individualized guidance

22. A2J guided interviews are great for
• Gathering information needed for document
assembly, case intake, or other purposes
• Audio, video, images
• Making online resources more accessible
• Individualized guidance

23. Expert systems are great for
• Rule-based reasoning
(backward and forward chaining)
• Non-procedural (‘declarative’) knowledge
• Explanation
• Individualized guidance

24. But
None of these are particularly good
for helping people make choices

25. Going beyond
databases,
document assembly,
guided interviews,
and
expert systems
Supporting choice
requires

26. Choices involve
competing values and perspectives
They’re not algorithmic
You can’t look up or compute the answer

27. Example: Triage

28. Factors in play
• Recipient needs, interests, & circumstances
– Nature of ‘stake’ and likelihood of success
– Capacity for self-help
• Provider resources, interests, & circumstances
– Availability
– Priorities / Preferences
• System/Society interests
– Fairness
– Overall impact on just outcomes
– System improvement

29. Challenges
• Demand greatly exceeds resources
• Complex recipient circumstances
• Changing provider circumstances
(resource availability, priorities)
• Competing views about which kinds of
problems deserve which kinds of assistance

30. Representation
Online Doc
Assembly

32. HOWEVER …
Most decisions involve many “hands”:
• more than two options, and
• more than a couple considerations,
• of varying degrees of importance,
• with people disagreeing both about the relative
importance of considerations and how the options ‘do’
on them.

33. What would an ideal choice
management system look like?
persistent
transparent
simple
complete
granular
easy
fun
beautiful
accessible
collaborative
inclusive
self-learning
autonomy enhancingdynamically reconfigurable
universal

34. What do choosers want to know?
• What do I need to know and do to make a good choice?
• What are my options? (Have I missed any good ones?)
• What factors should I pay attention to? (Have I missed any important
ones?)
• Which factors are most important?
• How do the options compare on the important factors? (features and
ratings)
• How significant are the differences? (scores)
• How does everything stack up? (What’s the balance of tradeoffs?)
• Where can I get more information? Who can help me? (Find more
options, factors, ratings, opinions, reviews …)

35. Factor
Factor
Factor
Perspective
Perspective
Perspective
Option Option Option
Rating Rating Rating
Rating Rating Rating
Rating Rating Rating
A choicebox

36. Features
Interface
Ease of learning
Jane
John
Combined
Ace Acme Apex
7 8 9
Best Good Better
6 7 5
Choosing a case management
system

37. 37

38. Totals 1 3 2

40. US Legal Services Corporation

41. Opinions
Ideas
Experiences
??

45. Note: This data is illustrative. See Greacen report for final ratings.

49. Going Deeper
• A Decision Space for Legal Service Delivery
• Dancing in the Cloud
• Which – a simple HotDocs-based example of choiceboxing
on LawHelp Interactive [Best viewed in Chrome or IE]
• Preparing Law Students for Choice Jobs
(Presentation at 2014 CALI conference)
• 'Boxing' Choices for Better Dispute Resolution,
Int'l Journal of Online Dispute Resolution (1) 1, 70-92 (2014)
• LSC Tech Summit case study
• Triage and Expert Systems in Legal Aid

51. In Conclusion
• A lot of our choices are not well made
• We can do better
• Good choices begin with mindfulness
– Not just about what you’re choosing,
but also about how you’re choosing
• Choices are projects that need management
• Technology can help
• We need new tools

52. What if ?
When you faced a decision, you could
– Easily create a custom choice support environment
– Share it online with colleagues and other participants
– Draw on pre-existing and evolving info and insights
– Filter and sort through your options as you learn
– Have your rationale automatically documented
– Leave a legacy for others facing a similar choice