Where This Site Comes From

In the late 1990s, Richard Granat had a simple idea: what if the legal information that lawyers take for granted — the kind that fills law library shelves and costs hundreds of dollars an hour to explain — were freely available to everyone, written in plain language, organized by the situations people actually face?

The result was the People’s Law Library of Maryland, one of the first statewide legal information websites in the country. Built at www.peoples-law.org, it provided free, plain-language explanations of Maryland law on every topic that mattered to Maryland residents — family law, housing, consumer rights, employment, estates, and more. The site became a landmark in the access-to-justice movement, attracting over one million visitors annually.

Today, the People’s Law Library is operated by the Library of the Maryland Court System — a recognition that what began as one person’s conviction about public access to legal information had grown into an institution the state’s own judicial system was proud to maintain.

Richard has since moved to Florida. And he noticed that Florida — the third-largest state in the country, with over 22 million residents and some of the most active civil courts in the nation — had nothing comparable.

JusticeXpressFlorida.com is the answer to that gap.

What the People’s Law Library Proved

The People’s Law Library demonstrated something that was not obvious in 1997: that ordinary people, given clear and accurate legal information, can navigate the legal system on their own — and that their doing so makes the system more efficient, not less.

Before the internet, legal information was functionally inaccessible to non-lawyers. Law libraries were open to the public in theory, but the language of legal texts was impenetrable, the organization was designed for lawyers, and the practical guidance needed to actually use the information — how to file, which form, which court, which deadline — was nowhere to be found.

The People’s Law Library changed that for Maryland. It organized information by life situation rather than legal category. It cited statutes without requiring readers to understand statutory citation. It explained not just what the law said, but what it meant practically — what you could do, what you couldn’t, and what happened next.

The Maryland court system’s decision to adopt and operate the site was validation of the model — not just as a public service, but as a resource that served the courts themselves. Self-represented litigants who understand the system are better prepared, file better documents, and require less judicial hand-holding than those who arrive in court knowing nothing about the process they are navigating.

JusticeXpressFlorida.com is the People’s Law Library model — updated for 2026, extended to include the document preparation services that the original site never had, and built specifically for Florida’s unique legal landscape.

The Person Behind the Site

Richard S. Granat has spent more than twenty-five years at the intersection of law, technology, and access to justice. His work has consistently asked the same question: how do you make legal services available to the people who need them most, at a price they can actually afford?

That work began long before the internet. Richard served as part of the initial working group that created the National Legal Services Program — the OEO Legal Services Program launched under the Johnson administration’s War on Poverty — which established the principle that access to legal representation was a right, not a privilege. He later served as Director of the Center for Legal Studies at Antioch Law School in Washington, D.C., the nation’s first clinical law school, and as President and Dean of the Philadelphia Institute for Paralegal Training, the nation’s first paralegal school.

When the internet arrived, Richard was among the first to recognize that it could do for legal information what clinical legal education had done for legal representation — democratize access. In 1999, he launched MyLawyer.com, one of the first websites to offer automated legal forms directly to consumers. The People’s Law Library of Maryland followed.

In 2003, he launched one of the first fully online law firms — mdfamilylawyer.com — offering highly automated family law services in Maryland. In 2009, he founded DirectLaw, Inc., the first platform designed to enable solo and small law firms to deliver legal services online. The DirectLaw platform’s Rapidocs document automation system — representing over $5 million in development over a decade — now powers the automated documents on JusticeXpressFlorida.com.

Richard has served as Co-Chair of the eLawyering Task Force of the ABA Law Practice Management Division and on the ABA Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services. He has taught courses in Computers and the Law and Law Practice Management at the University of Maryland School of Law, the District of Columbia School of Law, and Rutgers School of Law. He holds a J.D. from Columbia University School of Law, an M.S. from the University of Pennsylvania, and a B.A. from Lehigh University. He is a member of the Maryland and District of Columbia Bar.

For more about Richard’s background, writing, and consulting work, visit www.richardgranat.com.

From the OEO to Florida — A Career in Access to Justice

• 1960s–70s

  OEO Legal Services Program & Clinical Legal Education

  Part of the working group that created the National Legal Services Program. Director of the Center for Legal Studies at Antioch Law School — the nation’s first clinical law school. President and Dean of the Philadelphia Institute for Paralegal Training — the nation’s first paralegal school.

• 1997

  People’s Law Library of Maryland — peoples-law.org

  Founded one of the first statewide legal information websites in the United States. Now operated by the Library of the Maryland Court System, attracting over one million visitors annually.

• 1999

  MyLawyer.com — Founder & CEO

  One of the first websites to offer automated legal forms directly to consumers online.

• 2003

  MDFamilyLawyer.com — Online Law Firm

  One of the first fully automated online law firms, delivering family law services in Maryland entirely through web-based document automation.

• 2004

  SmartLegalForms, Inc. — Founder & CEO

  Legal forms platform serving consumers and small businesses directly.

• 2009

  DirectLaw, Inc. — Founder & CEO · directlaw.com

  The first platform enabling solo and small law firms to deliver legal services online. The Rapidocs document automation library — now powering JusticeXpressFlorida.com — represents over $5 million in development investment across more than a decade.

• 2026

  JusticeXpressFlorida.com — Founded

  The People’s Law Library model — updated for 2026, built for Florida, and extended with the document preparation services the original site never had. Free legal information for every Floridian, with affordable automated documents for those who need to act.

What JusticeXpressFlorida.com Is Trying to Do

Florida has 22 million residents. The majority of civil court matters in Florida involve at least one self-represented party. The Florida court system has made significant investments in self-help resources — DIY Florida, the Florida Courts Help app, county self-help centers — but these resources cover a fraction of the legal matters Floridians face, and they stop at the form.

What they do not provide is the context that makes a form meaningful. Which form do I need? Does my situation qualify? What does this field mean in plain English? What happens at the hearing? What do I do after the judge signs the order? How do I update my records? Where is my county clerk?

JusticeXpressFlorida.com is built to answer all of those questions — for free, for every Floridian, organized by the situations real people face rather than by the legal categories lawyers use.

This site does not replace attorneys. It replaces the gap that exists before someone reaches an attorney — the gap where confusion, intimidation, and cost cause people to give up on their legal rights entirely.

The People’s Law Library proved that gap could be closed for Maryland. JusticeXpressFlorida.com is closing it for Florida.