scholarly journals Improving Access to Justice with Legal Chatbots

Stats ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 356-375
Author(s):  
Marc Queudot ◽  
Éric Charton ◽  
Marie-Jean Meurs

On average, one in three Canadians will be affected by a legal problem over a three-year period. Unfortunately, whether it is legal representation or legal advice, the very high cost of these services excludes disadvantaged and most vulnerable people, forcing them to represent themselves. For these people, accessing legal information is therefore critical. In this work, we attempt to tackle this problem by embedding legal data in a conversational interface. We introduce two dialog systems (chatbots) created to provide legal information. The first one, based on data from the Government of Canada, deals with immigration issues, while the second one informs bank employees about legal issues related to their job tasks. Both chatbots rely on various representations and classification algorithms, from mature techniques to novel advances in the field. The chatbot dedicated to immigration issues is shared with the research community as an open resource project.

Author(s):  
Steve Wilson ◽  
Helen Rutherford ◽  
Tony Storey ◽  
Natalie Wortley

This chapter addresses the issues and arguments surrounding access to justice. The chapter considers the recent changes and proposed changes to legal aid provision. There is an outline of the basic principles relating to public funding in both civil and criminal cases. Different methods of funding civil legal representation are discussed including CFAs and DBAs. Organisations involved in giving legal advice include Citizens’ Advice Bureaux and law centres are also included in the discussion about the availability of legal advice.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 46-70
Author(s):  
Gasasira Gasana John ◽  
Margaret W. Gachihi ◽  
Herbert Misigo Amatsimbi ◽  
Etienne Ruvebana

This paper seeks to establish the contribution of Accessible justice to ending impunity for violence against women. Consequently, it investigates how far availing legal remedies to victims of violence against women leads to sustainable peace building in Rwanda. In doing so, the study adopts a case of Access to Justice Bureaus- a judicial service established by the government of Rwanda to help people have access to free legal remedies. Based on data collected from fifty five in-depth interviews and six focus group discussions in the four provinces and Kigali city, findings reveal that through free legal representation, community mobilization, formation of gender dialogue groups and multi-sectoral collaboration, Access to Justice Bureaus have played an important role in combatting impunity to violence against women. Conversely, findings also point to a number of challenges that need to be addressed if violence against women is to be fully eradicated.


2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Farrell ◽  
Emma Phillips

AbstractIn Queensland, Australia, community legal centres utilise a range of different types of information technology to provide legal advice and assistance to their clients, which include marginalised and disadvantaged groups. In this article Emma Phillips and James Farrell considers the use and efficacy of different types of information technology within the community legal sector, discussing the findings of recent empirical research on this issue in the context of the relevant research literature. The article then explores issues associated with the use of information technology in the provision of legal information and advice, including the limitations associated with this technology in the context of the delivery of legal assistance to vulnerable clients.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Ana Laura Lira Cortes ◽  
Carlos Fuentes Silva

This work presents research based on evidence with neural networks for the development of predictive crime models, finding the data sets used are focused on historical crime data, crime classification, types of theft at different scales of space and time, counting crime and conflict points in urban areas. Among some results, 81% precision is observed in the prediction of the Neural Network algorithm and ranges in the prediction of crime occurrence at a space-time point between 75% and 90% using LSTM (Long-ShortSpace-Time). It is also observed in this review, that in the field of justice, systems based on intelligent technologies have been incorporated, to carry out activities such as legal advice, prediction and decisionmaking, national and international cooperation in the fight against crime, police and intelligence services, control systems with facial recognition, search and processing of legal information, predictive surveillance, the definition of criminal models under the criteria of criminal records, history of incidents in different regions of the city, location of the police force, established businesses, etc., that is, they make predictions in the urban context of public security and justice. Finally, the ethical considerations and principles related to predictive developments based on artificial intelligence are presented, which seek to guarantee aspects such as privacy, privacy and the impartiality of the algorithms, as well as avoid the processing of data under biases or distinctions. Therefore, it is concluded that the scenario for the development, research, and operation of predictive crime solutions with neural networks and artificial intelligence in urban contexts, is viable and necessary in Mexico, representing an innovative and effective alternative that contributes to the attention of insecurity, since according to the indices of intentional homicides, the crime rates of organized crime and violence with firearms, according to statistics from INEGI, the Global Peace Index and the Government of Mexico, remain in increase.


2020 ◽  
pp. 417-441
Author(s):  
Steve Wilson ◽  
Helen Rutherford ◽  
Tony Storey ◽  
Natalie Wortley ◽  
Birju Kotecha

This chapter addresses the issues and arguments surrounding access to justice. The chapter considers the recent reforms and proposed changes to legal aid provision. There is an outline of the basic principles relating to public funding in both civil and criminal cases. Different methods of funding civil legal representation are discussed including CFAs and DBAs. Organisations involved in giving legal advice on a pro bono basis, including Citizens Advice Bureaux and law centres, are also included. in the discussion about the availability of legal advice. The chapter aims to stimulate thought about the idea of access to justice and whether such access is fair and open to all in England and Wales.


2017 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 285-328 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cindy Blackstock

In February 2007, the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada and the Assembly of First Nations filed a complaint under the Canadian Human Rights Act alleging that the Government of Canada’s inequitable provision of child welfare services to 163,000 First Nations children, along with its flawed implementation of Jordan’s Principle, was discriminatory on the prohibited grounds of race and national ethnic origin. The case was highly contested. By the time the final arguments were heard in 2014, the Government of Canada had made eight unsuccessful attempts to get the case dismissed on technical grounds and breached the law on three occasions. On 26 January 2016, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal substantiated the complaint and ordered the Canadian Government to cease its discriminatory conduct. This article describes this historic case from the perspective of the executive director of the complainant, the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada, highlighting access to justice issues for equality-seeking Indigenous groups, children, and civil society. Recommendations for reform are discussed.


2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 99-128
Author(s):  
Beth Bilson ◽  
Brea Lowenberger ◽  
Graham Sharp

Among the strategies to improve public access to justice, increasing the accessibility and comprehensibility of legal information must be ranked as important. In this paper, the authors explore how libraries and librarians might play a role in providing the public with access and guidance to legal information. These issues are considered primarily in the context of two scenarios: that of the self-represented litigant, and that of a party to a limited scope retainer. The authors consider in particular how public libraries as a public space and public librarians as trusted intermediaries might support the objective of greater access. The possible roles of law society/courthouse and academic libraries in training and collection development are also considered. The distinction between providing access to legal information and giving legal advice is discussed briefly, and the authors suggest some possible ways of clarifying this distinction while pursuing the goal of expanding public access to legal information.


2004 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 319-330 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Kok

Abstract Under the Government of Canada's Great Lakes Program, the Great Lakes Sustainability Fund and its predecessor programs (the Great Lakes Cleanup Fund and the Great Lakes 2000 Cleanup Fund) were established to implement cleanup actions and strategies that would contribute to the restoration of beneficial uses in environmentally degraded areas (known as Areas of Concern) in the Great Lakes basin. The Great Lakes Sustainability Fund is administered by Environment Canada on behalf of eight Government of Canada departments. Contributing to impaired beneficial uses are municipal wastewaters generated from the urban centres in the Great Lakes Areas of Concern. These municipal wastewaters include treated sewage and wetweather discharges of combined sewer overflows and stormwater runoff. This paper provides an overview of the Municipal Wastewater Program of the federal government's Great Lakes Sustainability Fund and highlights the progress made to date under the program towards wet-weather flow management and the Program's role in developing and demonstrating sustainable approaches and technologies in the Great Lakes Areas of Concern.


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