Inspiration
20-years helping others in court proceedings including 4-months expedited claim against a high street bank. Realised how much harm and waste caused by court proceedings. Switched from being advisor to trusting lawyers who left me in 7-years of quick-sand. A simple debt claim that ended up with orders to pay-up £50k legal costs trying to recover £80k for what should have been a simple debt claim
What it does
chatbot that uses Amazon’s Alexa to guide a user through a problem (like physical face for Nadia being developed in Australia). A digital pathway to obtaining relevant information; it will then populate a draft letter of complaint; present this for correction. So aiding non-lawyers in creating well-structured arguments using technology. Helping find specialist legal advisors to answer the natural question “what are my chances of winning?” much earlier.
How I built it
Three-stages of knowledge engineering using apprentice students from universities of Cambridge and Leicester. Supervised their design of pathway-process, questions and output draft letter of complaint. And within a few weeks, coded two of four projects we ran.
Challenges I ran into
We had several versions of front-end of platform. From using googleforms to testing out chatbot technology before settling on a medium-solution. Given existing use in Australia’s Nadia, clearly still to make user-experience seemless with Alexa.
Accomplishments that I'm proud of
Shortlisted for Law Society Excellence Awards 2018 & Alternative Service Provider at British Lawyer Awards 2019. First service-users from high-end Hajj-travel package industry started using MVP of travel disputes digital pathway following Hajj 2019.
What I learned
knowledge-engineering requires very clear and bright legal understanding. Some areas of law have mix of fact and law, but in package travel law liability is stricter due to European directive. Also engagement with stakeholders and users requires persistence and a strong marketing budget when ready. Other justice-on-demand failures (a divorce digital platform in Netherlands) failed due to a lack of engagement with both.
What's next for HajjResolve
putting together board of advisors from stakeholders so supportive of vision in long-term. Creating fund from potential users in form of advance legal protection cover. And testing user-experience with Alexa.
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