Watch our digital innovation showcase webinars
28 Apr 2022
Justice Connect is committed to exploring how digital transformation and digital innovation can be used to meet ever increasing unmet legal need in Australia. Since 2016, our work has grown in scope and sophistication, with the launch of a range of widely used legal tech products and our latest strategy.
Throughout the past year we have made significant progress developing online, consumer-facing tools and resources assisting people and not-for-profit organisations with issues related to COVID-19, platforms that support the national and international pro bono eco-system, and cutting-edge AI that can diagnose legal problems using natural language.
We are proud to host an afternoon series of webinars highlighting some of our major innovation projects on Wednesday 11 May 2022. Each webinar will provide a progress update on the project, insights generated through our research and evaluation, and next steps and opportunities for collaboration. Project partners, design collaborators and users of our products will also join us to share their perspectives and experiences.
Introduction and welcome
12:30 PM – 1:00 PM
Kate Fazio has led Justice Connect’s award-winning digital innovation program since its inception in 2016. She is opening this showcase with an introduction to Justice Connect’s digital innovation strategy and an overview of our approach.
Diagnostic natural language processing AI model
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM
Justice Connect has been carrying out a world-leading AI project to train a model to identify legal problems in natural language text.
The project leverages Justice Connect’s extensive bank of natural language samples and the power of our pro bono network. Two years in, our model is already delivering diagnostic accuracy over 90% in a range of problem categories.
The practical applications of the AI model are enormous.
This session is co-presented with our collaborators from the University of Melbourne’s School of Computing and Information Technology: Dr. Mel Mistica, Prof. Tim Baldwin, and Dr. Jey Han Lau.
We’ll cover:
- How we have partnered with our pro bono network and used gamification to annotate over 8,019 language samples with 37,723 annotations
- How our model has been trained by our Melbourne University project colleagues
- What our initial analysis tells us about our dataset, classifying issues, and problems with the law
- How we are taking an inclusive approach to eliminate potential bias in our model’s training
- How we have integrated the AI model into our online intake process, and other potential practical applications
- How you can get involved
Self-help and consumer outreach in an increasingly digital world
2:00 PM – 3:00 PM
In 2020, Justice Connect introduced a new agile and iterative digital consumer outreach strategy. We emphasised a multi-channel approach that was responsive to the needs, behaviours, and interests of both individual and organisations in need of legal help.
Our mission was to make our tools, resources, and services readily available to people who use digital channels and social media platforms to resolve their legal problems. In turn, we have used data analytics in combination with our service delivery evidence to improve the design and function of our various offerings.
During this session you’ll hear about:
- Trends we have observed in how people search for and access legal help online
- How we design effective and accessible digital self-help and consumer outreach
- How we measure performance and adjust tactics through agile work structures
- How we iteratively designed our award-winning Dear Landlord self-help tool to respond to the needs of Victorian renters in a rapidly changing legal environment
- The design and user experience principles we’ve developed, including an insight into our award-winning Missing Majority report
- How our new approach substantially improved our reach, scale, and impact
Pro Bono Portal – Australia Update
3:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Justice Connect’s award-winning Pro Bono Portal has been in use across Australia for nearly 3 years to match demand for free legal assistance with pro bono capacity. Over 2000 matters have been added to the Portal since August 2019.
Hear about the genesis of the platform, how we are evaluating it and improving it, and latest development.
In particular, we will discuss:
- Our recent pilot project providing 14 community legal centres with full posting accounts to directly connect with law firms and pro bono lawyers
- The platform’s role in disaster response efforts
- The outcomes of recent evaluations
- New modules coming soon to better assist firms to manage their pro bono teams and report on pro bono outputs and outcomes
Pro Bono Portal – Global Project Update
4:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Justice Connect’s award-winning Pro Bono Portal is being rolled out around the world at no cost as part of a global pro bono ecosystem-supporting effort.
The platform is now fully deployed in the UK (winning Disruptive Technology of the Year in the Legal Innovation Awards alongside our partners LawWorks) , Ireland and New Zealand, with a range of further jurisdictions coming on board soon.
Get an understanding of:
- The genesis of the project
- Platform features
- How we provide free access to our code base while ensuring hosting organisations have complete data sovereignty and hosting controls
- Reflections from organisations that are already using the platform
- How to get involved in your jurisdictions at no cost
