Reimagining Justice - Saving lives through the power of an online legal community with Kate Briscoe

Saving lives through the power of an online legal community with Kate Briscoe

11/01/21 • 71 min

Reimagining Justice

In episode no. 67 I speak with Kate Briscoe, of LegalBeagles. The discussion covers:

how Kate’s inability to get a job played a part in starting LegalBeagles;
how LegalBeagles works today;
the large numbers of threads and visitors to the site;
the emerging areas of law covered by LegalBeagles;
who the volunteers are, what training they undertake to assist on the platform and why Kate thinks they contribute;
how LegalBeagles is filling a gap and providing assistance that isn’t being provided anywhere else including from the funded Citizens Advice Bureau;
LegalBeagles’ governance structure and relationship with professional legal regulation;
Kate’s views on how a lot of innovation initiatives put the “cart before the horse”;
the many reasons it may not be appropriate to go to a lawyer;
how machine learning is drawing on LegalBeagles’ employment law data to provide instant responses;
various set-backs LegalBeagles has experienced including loss of a major partner;
Kate’s thoughts on the role of the legal profession in addressing the justice crisis;
sources of monetisation and sustainability of the platform;
where legal consumers actually go for legal help and how they know who to trust;
the link between litigation, health and justice;
how the model is saving lives; and
Kate’s definition of legal innovation.

Proudly sponsored by Neota Logic

Links:

Andrea Perry-Petersen – LinkedIn - Twitter @winkiepp – andreaperrypetersen.com.au

Twitter - @ReimaginingJ

Facebook – Reimagining Justice group

In episode no. 67 I speak with Kate Briscoe, of LegalBeagles. The discussion covers:

how Kate’s inability to get a job played a part in starting LegalBeagles;
how LegalBeagles works today;
the large numbers of threads and visitors to the site;
the emerging areas of law covered by LegalBeagles;
who the volunteers are, what training they undertake to assist on the platform and why Kate thinks they contribute;
how LegalBeagles is filling a gap and providing assistance that isn’t being provided anywhere else including from the funded Citizens Advice Bureau;
LegalBeagles’ governance structure and relationship with professional legal regulation;
Kate’s views on how a lot of innovation initiatives put the “cart before the horse”;
the many reasons it may not be appropriate to go to a lawyer;
how machine learning is drawing on LegalBeagles’ employment law data to provide instant responses;
various set-backs LegalBeagles has experienced including loss of a major partner;
Kate’s thoughts on the role of the legal profession in addressing the justice crisis;
sources of monetisation and sustainability of the platform;
where legal consumers actually go for legal help and how they know who to trust;
the link between litigation, health and justice;
how the model is saving lives; and
Kate’s definition of legal innovation.

Proudly sponsored by Neota Logic

Links:

Andrea Perry-Petersen – LinkedIn - Twitter @winkiepp – andreaperrypetersen.com.au

Twitter - @ReimaginingJ

Facebook – Reimagining Justice group

Previous Episode

Self-representation and AI-enabled “trial playbooks” with Sonja Ebron

In episode no. 66, I speak with Sonja Ebron, founder of Courtroom5. The discussion covers:

Sonja’s personal experience as a litigant and how that relates to her work today;
The types of matters Courtroom5 is best (and not!) suited to, who and how it assists;
How the patterns in the law support AI, and how that fast-tracks self-represented litigants’ understanding of their matters;
The factors for litigants to do best using Courtroom5;
The tools Courtroom5 employs to alleviate emotional distress;
The importance of support during litigation and how Courtroom5 provides that;
What a “trial playbook” is;
How Courtroom5 engages with courts and legal assistance organisations;
Judges’ bias against self-represented litigants???
The structure and composition of Courtroom5’s team;
Why Courtroom5 constantly seeks customer feedback;
Key factors that drive development of the product; The biggest change since Courtroom5 commenced in 2017;
Who are the unexpected users of Courtroom5;
What has given the company “the biggest boost”;
How Courtroom5 address the challenges of keeping information up to date;
What keeps the founders working on such an intractable problem; and
Sonja’s definition of legal innovation.

Proudly sponsored by Neota Logic

Links:

Andrea Perry-Petersen – LinkedIn - Twitter @winkiepp – andreaperrypetersen.com.au

Twitter - @ReimaginingJ

Facebook – Reimagining Justice group

Next Episode

Automation to augmentation: from lawyers acting as modems and machines as judges with Pia Andrews

In episode no. 68 my guest is serial public sector transformer, Pia Andrews. We discuss:

how her pursuit of “truth” led her to the open-source movement and working in policy development;
how technological tools relate to our quality of life;
‘open source’ – its philosophy and implementation and the idea of “clever hacks”;
how ‘rules as code’ addresses issues with enforcing regulation;
prescriptive and principles-based rules and when each are appropriate;
the connection between the cost of implementing regulation and its effectiveness;
how an API for prescriptive rules relating to anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism funding could have saved one bank $16M per year!;
how ‘rules as code’ make compliance more transparent by allowing for modelling, and how this could increase accountability of the public sector;
how current policy creation is insufficient and requires input from community and an example from France which incorporated co-design of policy;
Taiwan’s response to the introduction of Uber!
the importance of multidisciplinary teams in developing policy and how ‘rules as code’ facilities doing so in real time;
how ‘rules as code’ improves trust and compliance with administrative law and shifts the onus to government;
different public sector approaches to the “new normal”;
how the relationship between the public sector and its government drives outcomes;
whether a public sector should serve – the government, parliament or the people?
3 things necessary to create an environment for innovation and solving wicked problems;
the connection between capacity and innovation, and Pia’s ideas about how to increase civic participation through a “civic gap year” and “policy difference engine”; and of course
Pia’s definition of legal innovation.