Don’t Get Got: Real Lawyers. Really in Your Budget.

Inspiration

A ton of people need legal help but assume they can't afford it. The average attorney's fee in the U.S. is circa $300/hr -- inaccessible to many. So, everyday people up losing things they value -- money, custody over their own children, resources, freedom -- mostly due to financial contraints, not any demonstrable wrongdoing or lack of a compelling case. I study law part-time and it's very sad to see this happen.

Not only is this sad, but it's also unnecessary -- affordable attorneys do exist. This services aims to help connect everyday people with qualified attorneys they can afford. Quickly.

What it does:

Don’t Get Got matches real people in legal distress with strong, affordable, licensed lawyers in their area — fast. We do our very best to connect users with a unique network of qualified, affordable lawyers who are willing and able to work within real-world budgets. We deliver a vetted shortlist of price-aligned attorneys in a client's area — based on client preference and budget, not net worth.

How we built it:

I built the MVP in about 13 intense hours using AI tools like Bolt and Replit — and a lot of grit. The platforms didn’t always cooperate, and I had to work around persistent bugs and misinterpretations from the AI Agents. But I pushed through, knowing this could help real people facing high-stakes legal issues with no time to waste.

Challenges we ran into:

AI agents often ignored explicit, written instructions or misrepresented my inputs -- just aggressively, persistently, invariably ignoring clear, written instructions.

Once deployed, early users misunderstood the service, assuming that as someone who studies law, I could personally represent or advise them, just more cheaply. This is a total misunderstanding of how U.S. law works and why the service exists.

Educating users that unsupervised law students, paralegals or “legal writers” cannot legally represent them is still an uphill climb.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

• Took the leap to submit this idea even though I initially assumed hackathons were “just for coders.”

• Completed a working MVP within just one very focused day despite significant tech hurdles.

• Fielded early calls from real users -- three prospects in my first week.

• Created a framework that empowers all is a win/win for all parties -- clients get what they need, attorneys get what they are seeking, and I get to ensure more everyday people have more fair, equitable access to rule of law.

What we learned:

• These no-code/AI tools are powerful, but require much more precision and patience than people assume. They aren't yet self-directed; they require tremendous oversight.
• Imperfect action is better than perfect ideas that never ship.

What's next for Don’t Get Got: Real Lawyers. Really in Your Budget.

Expanding outreach, increasing sales outreach and systemizing.

Built With

• bolt
• porkbun
• replit