News

YPSILANTI, MI — September 21, 2026 — The Legal Services National Technology Assistance Project (LSNTAP) is partnering with LawDroid and Lagniappe Law Lab on the LawDroid Hackathon, a virtual, open-source competition designed to help people working in access to justice turn ideas for better service delivery into working technology prototypes.

Applications are open now through October 21, 2026.

The hackathon is designed for people who understand the challenges facing legal aid organizations, courts, self-represented litigants, and the communities they serve. Participants do not need to arrive with a finished product or extensive technical experience. Instead, applicants are invited to identify a problem and propose an idea for addressing it.

“Today’s low-code and no-code tools mean that the old hackathon model needed to be updated,” said Shellie Reid, Program Manager at LSNTAP. “I can’t wait to see what the community creates.”

LawDroid is funding the hackathon and will provide selected teams with funded build access and support during the development process. LSNTAP is assisting with community engagement and support. Representatives from LSNTAP, LawDroid, and Lagniappe Law Lab will help support participants as they move from an idea to a working demonstration.

The teams selected to move forward to the next round will be announced on October 28, with the build phase beginning October 30. Teams will have until January 22, 2027, to submit their working prototypes and video demonstrations. Finalists will then be invited to present their projects virtually in early February.

An important feature of the project is its emphasis on sharing. All hackathon projects will be open source, allowing legal aid organizations, courts, developers, and others to learn from the work, adapt it, and potentially build upon it.

For LSNTAP, the hackathon offers an opportunity to encourage experimentation among people who understand access-to-justice problems firsthand but may not consider themselves technology developers. New AI-assisted, low-code, and no-code development tools are making it increasingly possible for subject-matter experts to experiment with ideas and create prototypes without traditional software development experience.

Some of the most useful legal technology ideas begin with a simple observation: There has to be a better way to do this. This hackathon gives members of the access-to-justice community an opportunity to explore that question, test an idea, and see what they can build.

Learn more and apply: https://lawdroidhackathon.com/

About LSNTAP

The Legal Services National Technology Assistance Project (LSNTAP), a project of Michigan Advocacy Program, provides training, resources, and technical assistance to help legal aid organizations use technology effectively to improve services and expand access to justice.

About LawDroid

LawDroid is a justice technology company providing AI solutions for legal aid organizations, court systems, and government agencies. LawDroid is funding the hackathon and providing technology resources and support to participating teams.

About Lagniappe Law Lab

Lagniappe Law Lab works with Louisiana’s civil justice community to develop and scale approaches that improve access to justice.

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Media Contact
Shellie Reid
Program Manager
Legal Services National Technology Assistance Project (LSNTAP)
Email: sreid@lsscm.org
LSNTAP.org