I-Corps: ResolveAble: A Proposal to the National Science Foundation I-Corps Teams Program

该项目探索自动讨价还价软件的可行性，以更有效地解决法院和（可能是匿名的）被指控或被判犯有轻微罪行的个人之间的纠纷。美国的法律制度赋予法官权力来解决轻微的违规行为，如未付停车罚单和未出庭的低级轻罪。这一司法自由裁量权程序有可能通过技术进步得到改进并增加其效益。目前的制度要求违法者要么聘请律师，要么出庭解决某些法律问题。聘请律师的费用往往很高，出庭可能面临包括监禁在内的制裁风险。通常，许多罪犯选择不露面，这可能会限制他们生活的许多方面。这种技术有如下潜力：1)使法官能够在不需要法律代表出庭的情况下达成有约束力的协议；2)使被告能够与政府进行匿名谈判，可以通过降低成本和潜在地减轻传统自首的负面影响来促进争端解决。目前，美国有数以千万计的人在法庭上有悬而未决的小问题，比如法官授权和未付罚款（确切数字不详，但大多数州至少有数十万件积压案件）。这些大量的积压案件给州和地方政府带来了成本，因为它们放弃了大量的收入，并消耗了有限的执法资源。通过促进法院和受影响个人之间的互利交易，这项技术可能会改善这些私人和社会问题。此外，这项技术可能有许多可替代的应用：这项技术可以被修改，使目前需要多名高薪律师直接参与的法律任务自动化，比如辩诉交易。这项技术也可以用于非法律领域，比如自动化大学录取和经济援助决策。最后，通过更多地了解罪犯的决策过程，该项目可以为法院工作人员、法官和政策制定者提供有用的见解，以提高法院效率和罪犯的守法率。

This project explores the viability of automated bargaining software to more efficiently and effectively resolve disputes between courts and (potentially anonymous) individuals accused or convicted of minor offenses. The U.S. legal system grants judges the authority to resolve minor infractions such as unpaid parking tickets and failure to appear for low-level misdemeanors. There is the potential for this judicial discretion process to be improved and increase its benefit through technological advances. The current system requires offenders to either hire lawyers or appear in court to resolve certain legal issues. Frequently lawyers can be costly and court appearances may involve risk of sanctions including potential incarceration. Often many offenders choose not to appear which potentially limits many aspects of their lives. Technology that has the potential to 1)Enable judges to reach binding arrangements without the need for court appearances of legal representation and that 2)offer defendants the ability to negotiate anonymously with the government, can facilitate dispute resolution by reducing costs and potentially mitigating negative impacts of traditional surrender.Currently, tens of millions of people in the U.S. have outstanding, minor problems with courts, such as bench warrants and unpaid fines (exact numbers are unknown, but most states have backlogs in at least the hundreds of thousands). These large backlogs impose costs on state and local governments by forgoing significant revenue and consuming limited enforcement resources. By facilitating mutually beneficial deals between courts and affected individuals, the technology may improve these private and social problems. Additionally, the technology may have many v alternative applications: The technology can be modified to automate legal tasks that currently require the direct involvement of multiple, highly-compensated attorneys, such as plea bargaining. The technology may also have uses in non-legal fields, such as automating college admissions and financial aid decisions. Lastly, by learning more about the offender decision making process, the project may provide court personnel, judges and policy makers with useful insights into how to improve court efficiency and offender compliance rates.