A2J Author lets court, legal-services, and law-school staff build web-based guided interviews to help self-represented litigants complete court documents. Authors map dialogue and branching questions with a graphical flowchart, and the system includes tools for templates and basic document assembly. CALI offers free hosting on A2J.org for interviews and templates intended to help litigants; organizations may also self-host the A2J Viewer, A2J DAT, and interviews. The plan is 0.00 USD per free for legal aid organizations, government entities, courts, or other nonprofits using it for non-commercial purposes, and requires a registered, authenticated account. Authors can create Section 508 and WCAG2-compliant interviews when using the latest Viewer and following the accessibility checklist. Browser support lists current Chrome, Safari, and Firefox, though the browser page was last updated in August 2019. HotDocs templates cannot be published on A2J.org. For self-hosted use, generating documents from HotDocs templates requires LawHelp Interactive or a HotDocs server.
Who it is for
It suits legal aid organizations, courts, government entities, nonprofits, and law schools creating guided interviews for people representing themselves. The free plan is limited to qualifying organizations and non-commercial use.
What is good
- Graphical flowchart supports branching interview design.
- CALI offers free hosting for interviews and templates.
- Organizations can self-host the Viewer, DAT, and interviews.
- Accessibility guidance covers Section 508 and WCAG2.
What to know first
- Free use requires a qualifying organization and non-commercial purpose.
- A registered, authenticated account is required.
- HotDocs templates cannot be published on A2J.org.
- Self-hosted HotDocs document generation needs another service or server.
Verdict
A2J Author is designed for organizations building guided interviews and related documents for self-represented litigants. Its free hosting and self-hosting options come with eligibility and HotDocs constraints.
A2J Author plans and pricing
All plansCompared on legal forms software
- Free plan
- Yes
- Custom templates
- Yes
- Fillable PDFs
- Yes
- Download formats
- Jurisdiction scope
- general
