People Working With Computers Credit: SFIO CRACHO/Shutterstock.com

The goal of access-to-justice platforms is noble: Create sound legal solutions for people who wouldn't otherwise have the wherewithal to obtain legal advice. But placing those products in the hands of its intended clients can be difficult.

The U.K.'s Solicitors Regulation Authority and innovation foundation Nesta Challenges seek to change that after they announced the eight finalists of their first Legal Access Challenge, a few of which assist small businesses with their legal matters.

The eight finalists were awarded £50,000 ($61,500) and guidance from the SRA, the regulatory body for the solicitors profession in the U.K., to develop products that address small business and individual legal needs.

Chris Gorst, head of Nesta's better markets team, said legal technology isn't generally created with small businesses' needs in mind.

He noted that this is part of a broader shortfall. "We are seeing a lot of investment in innovation, particularly digital innovation with the big law firms, huge investments in AI and machine learning, but you aren't seeing very much penetration of tech-enabled legal services for the broader market of citizens and small businesses."

Below are the four small business-specific legal tech tools that were named as finalists in this year's challenge. While they address different needs, they all seek to improve the legal difficulties faced by small businesses.

Litigation Friend

For Tara Grossman, the idea behind challenge finalist Litigation Friend and its parent company Solomonic was the question all lawyers are asked by clients: Will I win my case?

Grossman, who worked at Herbert Smith Freehills as a solicitor and in-house at Airbnb and Goldman Sachs, said a solicitor's answer to predicting a case's outcome is a mix of "gut feeling" based on previous experience and consulting other solicitors.

Litigation Friend and Solomonic are geared toward taking the guesswork out of predicting a case's success rate. Litigation Friend is a platform for settling employment tribunal claims between small and midsize businesses and individuals to "get to a place where you can settle quickly and avoid the stress of litigation," Grossman said. Using Solomonic's case analysis ability and artificial intelligence, Litigation Friend users can predict their matter's projected damages award, how long it would take for the court to issue a judgment and their likelihood to win.

Grossman said the team will use the partnerships and prize money to enhance its AI and analytics ability to analyze thousands of employment tribunal judgments.

Glow

 

Glow by Duo Ventures seeks to unite multiple claimants and simplify the creation of collective redress cases, said Duo Ventures co-founder Amar Chauhan.

"For a law firm or multiple law firms to manage a large amount of claimants is currently an administrative nightmare, we are simplifying the process for everyone involved," Chauhan said.

Glow seeks to streamline collective redress and reduce the time solicitors spend on administrative tasks so they can hopefully pass on the saving to clients. Solicitors "can save time and money, enabling a higher turnover of cases, which will increase deal flow," he explained.

TakeNote

After harassment complaints were lodged at British fashion retailer Ted Baker and its former CEO, Organise CEO Nat Whalley said multiple focus groups revealed employees wanted a discreet way to document workplace harassment.

TakeNote was created to allow employees to document any workplace interaction that seemed inappropriate. She explained those actions include direct acts of discrimination and "all of those things that happens on their own that doesn't seem like a big deal but over a course of several months is significant."

Whalley, who has a background as an organizer and campaign manager, said the notes can be sent as a PDF to a lawyer or union rep to discuss further legal or employment action. With the cash prize, her team is exploring encryption possibilities, identifying any legal pitfalls to sharing sensitive information through a cellphone and establishing partnerships with industries that face high rates of harassment. Whalley noted those partnerships are important to keep TakeNote free and sustainable for anyone to use to document workplace harassment.

Resolve Disputes Online

Resolve Disputes Online is a dispute resolution tech provider that develops online negotiations and mediation tools for U.K. consumers and businesses. Co-founder and lawyer Joe Al-Khayat noted in a press release announcing the finalists that Resolve Disputes Online is already being leveraged in multiple countries.

"We are very much aligned to the U.N.'s sustainability goal to improve global access to justice and already we provide our technology to governments and private mediation centers in jurisdictions such [as] the USA, Canada, Singapore, Thailand and Australia," he explained. "As a team of U.K. lawyers, we are thrilled to be able to help our home jurisdiction innovate and ease the pain points of disputes for consumers and businesses in England and Wales."

The Rest of the Competition

The other nonbusiness legal tools named as finalists include Formily, a tool for divorce proceedings, digital rights "one-stop-shop" MyDigitalRights, RCJ Advice, which offers women and children legal aid, and Mencap, a chatbot that helps people with learning disabilities maneuver community care and welfare benefits.

Two winners are scheduled to be announced in March 2020 and they will receive an additional £50,000.