About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

LOG IN
LOG IN


25 Duke L. & Tech. Rev. 48 (2024-2025)
Gray Advice

handle is hein.journals/dltr25 and id is 48 raw text is: GRAY ADVICE KEITH PORCAROt Debates over economic protectionism or the technology flavor-of- the-month obscure a simple, urgent truth: people are going online to find help that they cannot get from legal and health professionals. They are being let down, by products withfestering trust and quality issues, by regulators slow to apply consumer protection standards to harmful offerings, and by professionals loath to acknowledge changes to how help is delivered. The status quo cannot continue. Waves of capital and code are empowering ever more organizations to build digital products that blur the line between self-help and professional advice. For good or ill, gray advice is changing how ordinary people get help with legal issues and healthcare issues, and even how they perceive professionals. This Article begins the work of articulating what makes a high- quality digital advice product, and how regulators and professionals can engage with the reality of how people seek and find help today. INTRODUCTION Americans need help and don't get it. Critical services, from health and psychiatric care to legal assistance, are increasingly becoming luxury goods: unavailable and unaffordable for many Americans. Traditional regulated advice-giving professions are unable or unwilling to meet overwhelming demand for their services. Most Americans do not receive any help for the legal issues they encounter every day.1 In the rare cases where people recognize a problem i Senior Lecturing Fellow, Duke Law School. Thanks to the participants in the Winter 2024 Law and Technology Workshop for their helpful comments, especially Blake Reid, Asaf Lubin, and Kendra Albert; thanks also to the participants at the 2023 Privacy Law Scholars Conference, who commented on a very early draft of this piece. 1 LEGAL SERVS. CORP., THE JUSTICE GAP: THE UNMET CIVIL LEGAL NEEDS OF Low-INCOME AMERICANS 42-48 (Apr. 2022), https://justicegap.lsc.gov/the- report/.