Featured Projects
JusticeTech’s projects directly address critical legal challenges facing Ohio communities. With input from community partners and support from interdisciplinary student teams, we create scalable, research-backed tools that improve outcomes for vulnerable populations.
Housing Initiatives
We are addressing Ohio’s eviction crisis through legal research, community engagement, and innovative technology:
In partnership with New America’s EDRN and the Center for Urban and Regional Analysis (CURA), we’ve created one of Ohio’s most robust datasets on eviction, rent escrow, debt collection, and code violations. This work supports targeted interventions and informs policy efforts toward long-term housing stability. This collaborative effort supports the development of proactive, public-facing tools that aim to prevent eviction rather than simply respond to it. Tools piloted with support from Franklin County Municipal Court.
Developed by students and in partnership with the Franklin County Self Help Desk, this tool is an asynchronous negotiation platform that allows landlords and tenants to resolve disputes outside of court. Mediators can be invited into the discourse upon request.
This program is currently in development.
Empowering tenants to resolve housing issues before they escalate, this AI-powered tool transforms concerns into professional, written requests for landlords. Students were mentored by Carlie J. Boos, Executive Director of the Affordable Housing Alliance. Better Said was launched by JusticeMobile and the open‑source code is available here for public use. The program can also be found at Rentful614.
Education Initiative
We are helping schools, courts, and families reduce chronic absenteeism and the school-to-court pipeline. In collaboration with Urbana Elementary School and Champaign County Juvenile Court we are reducing the administrative burden while improving compliance and family outreach:
Second Bell is a cloud portal concept designed to improve collaboration between schools, families, and courts through customizable workflows, communication tools, and intervention tracking features at the student level.
Developed to support Urbana City Schools, this tool streamlines the monitoring of student attendance by converting weekly absence PDF reports into organized, actionable data. The system significantly increases administrative efficiency and data accuracy. This automation allows truancy officers to spend less time on paperwork and more time engaging directly with students and families to provide necessary support.
Family Initiative
We are developing accessible digital tools that empower families to navigate complex legal processes and coordinate care with clarity and ease.
Created in partnership with Action For Children, ShareCare helps families who cannot afford private legal parenting plans. This mobile-friendly tool uses a "wizard-style" questionnaire based on Ohio Supreme Court forms to simplify the legal process for users of all education levels. Through a collaborative dashboard, co-parents can work together or independently to reach a consensus on their family’s parenting plans.