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Online information, advice
and representation

Platforms offering legal information/ advice with follow up services supported by technology.

People-centred online information/advice provide services that assist people to solve their problems step by step and in a fair, effective way, consistent with their legal entitlements.

Web-based or app-based

A clear business model needed

Solution focused with step-by-step assistance provided

Mainly implemented by private sector

*Derived from Examples such as A2J Author, LegalZoom & DIYLaw
*Derived from Examples such as A2J Author, LegalZoom & DIYLaw

In what setting?

Online information, advice and representation services have been mushrooming in every country. They are run by law firms, individuals, start-ups, charities, non-profits or sometimes even the government. They can be a helpful starting point for citizens, but web portals and mobile apps need substantial investment to become effective self-help guides leading to higher rates of resolution. Examples of this are still rare, even across the high income countries.

Examples of Online Information/ Advice

A2J Author is a user-friendly tool that helps self-represented litigants. Through guided interviews that break down complicated forms, information and legal processes into digestible questions, it makes the journey of a self-represented litigant into the court of law easy and accessible. The tool is made available to legal aid organisations or for the use of government entities for non commercial purposes. 

Other examples of online information/advice from HiiL portfolio are: PatentBot (Ukraine), LawBasket (Zimbabwe). 

Meet Nelson Nkari - He is innovating Kenya's justice system

Nelson Nkari is Kenya’s rising entrepreneur keen on bringing legal information and advice to people’s doorstep. His online platform Legal Point Services connects ordinary people to verified lawyers and legal services at an affordable price. It also offers digital workflows to lawyers which helps them in navigating legal proceedings efficiently, minimising delays. This further enables judges to expedite the resolution of justice problems in the court. 

With a degree in computer science and law, Nelson remained steadfast in the pursuit of innovating the justice system in Kenya. He creatively resolved one challenge after another and held on to his convictions in the face of hardship. As he steers the platform into its third year of operation, his story echoes the call for support for social entrepreneurs from the government and funders, to unleash the potential of such innovative minds. 

Need for a level playing field for justice entrepreneurs in Kenya

Morgan Gikonyo is from lush green tea estates in the western highlands of Kenya. While training to become a lawyer at the University of Nairobi, circa 2018, he founded both Wakili Mkononi and Ask Wakili [1]. Wakili Mkononi was a platform that hosted educational videos on the everyday legal problems of people and Ask Wakili connected people to verified lawyers who provide legal assistance at an affordable fee. A legal needs survey conducted by HiiL (2017) in Kenya indicated that there is an unmet demand for legal information that can be filled by platforms like Wakili Mkononi and Ask Wakili. Yet, as Morgan would discover, the road to democratising legal information in Kenya is fraught with challenges.

Scaling of Online Legal Information/Advice

Innovating lawyer advice services
Many legal innovators attempt to standardise and scale the services of lawyers. They may build referral sites, matching clients and lawyers, thus lowering the search costs for customers and the marketing costs for lawyers. Another opportunity is to offer legal information and diagnosis. Advice can be automated through chatbots and tailored by a telephone help desk.
Innovating lawyer advice services
Assistance with bringing a case to court
A few innovators went further. They support negotiation and even filing claims at courts. The French startup Demander Justice specialises in employment issues and claims lower than €10,000, because these can be filed without lawyer assistance. For other problems it helps people to prepare their files and then connects them to lawyers who will represent them in court at a lower price than they would pay if they had to contract a lawyer individually.
Assistance with bringing a case to court
Carefully evaluate the value added by the service
Scaling this type of service starts with investigating the value that is added for the users. Information or advice is valuable if it increases resolution rates. Finding a lawyer prepared to take on a case does not help, unless that lawyer is more capable than a random lawyer found on the web in negotiating good outcomes for clients. Help with filing a claim at court is as good a value proposition as the solution the court offers.
Carefully evaluate the value added by the service
A focus on price may be misleading
If the service is not capable of delivering good outcomes, price hardly matters. It is like lowering the price of diesel generators to ensure people get power 24/7. Actually, surveys on access to justice indicate that few people mention price as a reason for not using legal services. They mostly mention reasons that are related to what they expect to gain from the service. In our 2020 Trend Report Charging for Justice we explored the option that fixating on price may even decrease access to justice. If customers can only distinguish between services according to price and are not able to assess the value services bring to them, providers will compete on price and the quality will decrease in the entire market.
A focus on price may be misleading
Adjust the service to the available options for adjudication
The online legal service should adjust to the adjudication option that is available. Can an uncooperative defendant be incentivised to agree to a fair solution? Can the provider then ensure a decision by a local court, or an intervention by an ombudsman? If a neutral decision through formal channels is not feasible, incentives to cooperate can be generated by influencing the reputation of the defendant. This is a more aggressive approach, used by platforms such as Resolver in the UK. It is most common for assisting consumers seeking a solution from sellers of goods and services, for whom reputation is crucial.
Adjust the service to the available options for adjudication
Problematic business models need attention
Information websites, mobile apps, or Facebook pages are easy to start but costly to maintain. They are often not scalable. Many remain dormant or are little more than fronts of law firms, which may confuse the increasing number of people who look for trustworthy information on the internet. Advertising models for legal information websites have often failed. Information through a radio programme or television show discussing legal issues may generate sufficient revenue. In the UK, information is supplied by Citizen Advice, a cooperative between local NGOs which each generate a combination of private donations and subsidies. In the US, no single source of information online is dominant, although the HiiL/IAALS survey found that up to 40% of people with justice problems start their justice journey online. In African countries and the Arab region, we have seen many attempts to set up legal information sites, but until now no such platform broke even.
Problematic business models need attention
Referral or subscription fees from lawyers have been tried
Most information websites offer tools and follow-up services that can be monetised and replicated. Another business model is referral fees or subscription fees from lawyers. Websites using this model now exist in many countries. Yet, we have not seen national champions yet, so we suspect that this model needs to be further developed.
Referral or subscription fees from lawyers have been tried
Regulatory barriers are a risk
Regulatory issues may be barrier to scaling as well. The provision of legal information and advice is regulated in many countries. A company providing web based legal help services can also face restrictions when it wants to hire lawyers to handle cases. Many legal innovators using this model faced law suits from organisations of lawyers.
Regulatory barriers are a risk
Innovation work to be done
The bottom line is that online supported information, advice and representation attracts a lot of attention. Whether it can lead to a sustainable and scalable business model remains to be seen. This poses an interesting challenge for justice entrepreneurs.
Innovation work to be done

Online information, advice and representation: outcomes are key

Suggestions for what should be addressed in a feasibility study.

Many legal innovators attempt to standardise and scale the services of lawyers. They may build referral sites, matching clients and lawyers, thus lowering the search costs for customers and the marketing costs for lawyers. Another opportunity is to offer legal information and diagnosis. Advice can be automated through chatbots and tailored by a telephone help desk.

A few innovators went further. They support negotiation and even filing claims at courts. The French start-up Demander Justice specialises in employment issues and claims lower than €10,000, because these can be filed without lawyer assistance. For other problems, it helps people to prepare their files and then connects them to lawyers who will represent them in court at a lower price than they would pay if they had to contract a lawyer individually.

How should a task force evaluate the value added by these services? Most of these services fixate on price. By increasing efficiency, they lower the costs of legal services.

A task force should consider outcomes first. Information or advice is valuable if it increases resolution rates. Finding a lawyer prepared to take on a case does not help, unless that lawyer is more capable than a random lawyer found on the web in negotiating good outcomes for clients. Help with filing a claim at court is as good a value proposition as the solution the court offers. If the service is not capable of delivering good outcomes, price hardly matters. It is like lowering the price of diesel generators to ensure people get power 24/7. Actually, surveys on access to justice indicate that price is only one of many barriers to effective solutions. In our 2020 Trend Report Charging for Justice we explored the option that fixating on price may even decrease access to justice. If customers can only distinguish between services according to price and are not able to assess the value services bring to them, providers will compete on price and quality will decrease in the entire market.

In order to prepare providers of these services for substantial investments, we therefore  recommend a taskforce to ask them to first define outcomes. Then stimulate them to ensure these outcomes can be achieved. Evidence for this may be made available by developing a treatment guideline or using an existing one. Next, the service can be standardised to ensure outcomes in a systematic way. Ideally, the service offers the users a step by step process towards resolution, with continuous evaluation of progress against the desirable outcomes.

Crucially, the online legal service should adjust to the adjudication option that is available. Can an uncooperative defendant be incentivised to agree to a fair solution? Can the provider then ensure a decision by a local court, or an intervention by an ombudsman? If a neutral decision through formal channels is not feasible, incentives to cooperate can be generated by influencing the reputation of the defendant. This is a more aggressive approach, used by platforms such as Resolver in the UK. It is most common for assisting consumers seeking a solution from sellers of goods and services, for whom reputation is crucial. 

When investigating legal information pathways available to internet users, the task force is likely to be disappointed. Information websites, mobile apps, or Facebook pages are easy to start but costly to maintain. They are often not scalable. Many remain dormant or are little more than fronts of law firms, which may confuse the increasing number of people who look for trustworthy information on the internet. Wikipedia pages on justice issues are not that helpful (which may change if treatments become standardised across jurisdictions).

Advertising models for legal information websites have failed. Information through a radio program or television show discussing legal issues may generate sufficient revenue (check, feasible? Effective outcomes?). In the UK, information is supplied by Citizen Advice, a cooperative between local NGOs, where each NGO  generates a combination of private donations and subsidies. In the US, no single source of information online is dominant, although the HiiL/IAALS survey found 40% of people with justice problems start their justice journey online. In African countries and the Arab region we have seen many attempts to set up legal information sites, but until now no such platform has reached the broke even point.

Most information websites therefore offer tools and follow-up services that can be monetized and replicated. Another business model is referral fees or subscription fees from lawyers. Websites using this model now exist in many countries. We have not seen national champions yet, so we suspect that the financial model for this type of service still needs attention.

When assisting people with advice or with filing cases at courts, startups like Demander Justice had to invest in litigation started by members of the legal profession. In California, courts have set up help desks that assist clients with filing claims as a public service, arguably because private services were afraid to fill the legal advice gap. 

Similar to claiming platforms, these portals bridge the gap between the public and unresponsive government justice services. Once a task force ensures that a one stop procedure or a community justice service is effective and scaled, the private portals will shift their attention to other justice problems or services adding more value.