LegalEase

Inspiration

In Miami, language shouldn't be a barrier to justice or financial stability. Over 40% of our residents speak Spanish as their primary language, yet they are bombarded daily with English-only leases, medical forms, and utility bills. We saw grandmothers in Hialeah and recent immigrants in Sweetwater struggling to understand high-stakes documents they were required to sign. We built LegalEase to move beyond simple translation—we wanted to provide true comprehension and peace of mind.

What it does

LegalEase is a mobile-first, bilingual document assistant. Users can snap a photo of any English document and instantly see a side-by-side Spanish translation.

Listen & Learn: Using ElevenLabs, the app reads the translation or a simplified summary aloud in a natural voice, catering to older adults or those with visual impairments.

Bilingual AI Chat: Users can speak or type follow-up questions (e.g., "When is this bill due?") and receive instant, spoken explanations powered by Gemini AI.

Secure Storage: Documents are saved to a private account via Clerk and Supabase, allowing users to reference their paperwork anytime.

How we built it

We utilized a robust, modern stack to ensure speed and accessibility:

Frontend: Next.js with TypeScript and Tailwind CSS for a responsive, "Accessibility First" UI.

OCR & Parsing: Google Cloud Vision API for high-accuracy text extraction from photos, and PDF.js for digital uploads.

The "Brain": Gemini API handles the complex task of translating and answering contextual questions about the documents.

The "Voice": ElevenLabs provides the high-fidelity Spanish voice output that makes the app feel human and approachable.

Backend: Supabase handles our PostgreSQL database and secure file storage, while Clerk manages user authentication.

Challenges we ran into

One of the biggest hurdles was handling the "dirty" text generated by OCR from handheld photos. Shadows and wrinkles on a paper bill can confuse standard parsers. We had to fine-tune our prompts to Gemini to ensure it could distinguish between actual document content and "noise" from the image. Additionally, balancing a "Minimal UI" with the powerful features of side-by-side translation required several design iterations to ensure the screen didn't feel cluttered on mobile.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are incredibly proud of our voice-first integration. Instead of voice being an afterthought, it is a primary way to interact with the app. Seeing a complex legal paragraph transformed into a simple, spoken Spanish summary feels like a genuine bridge over a massive social gap. We are also proud of our 100% bilingual interface toggle, ensuring the app is usable by both English-speaking children helping their parents and the Spanish-speaking parents themselves.

What we learned

We learned that when building for "LawTech," the most important feature isn't just accuracy—it's trust. Using high-quality AI voices like ElevenLabs significantly increased the "trust factor" of the information being provided compared to robotic text-to-speech. We also deepened our knowledge of integrating multiple heavy-hitter APIs (Google Cloud, ElevenLabs, Gemini, Supabase) into a cohesive Next.js workflow.

What's next for LegalEase

We want to expand LegalEase to support more languages common in South Florida, such as Haitian Creole. We also aim to implement "Action Item Detection," which would automatically add due dates from scanned bills directly to a user's calendar. Our ultimate goal is to partner with local community centers to get this tool into the hands of those who need it most.