Locate Advocate

1
2
16
7
21
27
17
24
11
13
11
30
4
5
7
19
31
29
23
6
3
26
22
28
9
14
10
18
32
25
15
20

Hampered by small legal-aid budgets and time-consuming processes, pro bono centres (“PBCs”) are unable to extend effective help to a rising number of litigants. LocateAdvocate transforms the low-tech case management system at PBCs into a seamless, inter-operable one-stop solution that benefits litigants, lawyers, students and PBCs alike.

LocateAdvocate increases access to justice by providing easy access to any PBCs’ comprehensive suite of services on devices of any size anywhere. Litigants can remotely furnish their case information and book a suitable appointment with any PBC. Furthermore, they benefit from personalised guidance from student assistants (“SAs”) to ascertain their cases’ merits and contentious issues.

Meanwhile, PBCs benefit from LocateAdvocate’s AI/ML powered search engine (“AssignAdvocate”) that optimizes the choice of student assistant (“SA”) and lawyer for each case based on their expertise and past experiences in similar cases. Such curation of expertise increases the effectiveness of advice.

After being assigned a case, an SA can view the submitted information to create succinct case summaries and communicate with applicants. This equips lawyers to peruse through the case faster. Moreover, lawyers can also benefit from pre-consultation research by SAs. This gears them to analyse, strategize and advice better. Furthermore, LocateAdvocate is secure and stable as it is optimised by systems hardening and enabled by multi-factor authentication and password encryption. Moreover, LocateAdvocate dynamically retrieves applicant information for lawyers to conduct conflict checks easily.

Therefore, LocateAdvocate is a panoptic application that automates workflows and streamlines case review processes. As a microcosm with scope for augmentation in the future, it can, first, be scaled to publicise smaller student-led initiatives. Second, it can facilitate bottom-up curation of practical legal knowledge via discussion forums. Third, it can be pumped with auto-translation capabilities to serve our multilingual society. With LocateAdvocate, we hope to leap towards accessible justice- confidently, considerably, collectively.