Digital Legal Aid Platform

,,Bridge between people and a legal professional''

The Digital Legal Aid Platform (LAP) is a platform, that provides legal information to the people in their legal needs and connects them to affordable quality legal aid. The LAP works with the existing infrastructure of advocates, adapted to the organizational requirements of the legal profession in a country. Also, the distribution & outreach of the Platform for the vulnerable groups takes place with the existing infrastructure with institutions and people working with the people in need. We tend to work with the bar association and ministry of justice in this, as well as with centers for social work, UN organizations, microfinance banks, and humanitarian organizations.

The Digital Legal Aid Platform (LAP)

Access to scalable affordable quality legal aid

The aim of the LAP is that people are informed about their rights and obligations & can enforce them.
The LAP consists of:

- - informing the citizen on their rights and how to realize them, and connecting them to a lawyer
  - basic legal information on their basic legal needs identified in the Barometer legal rights protection research;
  - connects people to an affordable legal service by a lawyer

Providing lawyers with know-how and templates, to guide them and allow for tailor-made solutions, a CMS, and link them to clients:

- - Legal know-how, manuals, and template models for legal procedures, with the steps, templates, and all practical information to guide the solution of the case. Each case is different but it is very helpful to have templates and know-how on the steps as a guide, even for a lawyer, allowing her/him to focus on the specific contents of the case. It is much easier to run a procedure if all practical information is provided, allowing to develop of the specifics within a given form.
  - Case Management System (CMS) to support the advocates in their administration and allow them to easily communicate with clients on the state of the legal procedure. The CMS allows for transparency and monitoring of quality and progress.
  - A growing client-base: By making legal services more accessible, Microjustice opens up a new local “market” of clients that currently cannot afford a lawyer.

The LAP thus helps lawyers to obtain clients and to run a case. This is especially helpful for young lawyers to start their practice and to be provided by know-how and clients.

Distribution and awareness raising

The LAP will be tailor-made for its distribution and promotion, involving social institutions to help people access the digital network. In the Barometer research, the ways are identified in which in a country the LAP can be promoted and distributed.

Financially sustainable scalable model

The Platform links the client to the advocates. For the legal services the clients are in direct relation with the legal professionals, whom they pay an agreed affordable fee. Thus, unless a donor pays for the legal services of a special group, we do not pay for the costs of the lawyers’ services or administrative taxes. Microjustice provides the advocates who join the Platform with standardized templates and information on legal procedures and clients. However, Microjustice is not involved in the relationship between the client and the advocate.
Free legal aid will be possible if governments and donors decide to pay for the legal aid to special vulnerable groups. Thus, Microjustice helps also to develop a financially sustainable platform to foresee free legal aid for low-income groups and specific vulnerable groups.

The structure and principles behind the Platform are applicable in every country or on every specific target group. The content and relationship between the advocate and clients (including the fee) will vary depending on local circumstances and the requirements of the organization of the legal profession in a country. The setup of a Digital Legal Aid Platform follows a clear step-by-step approach using knowledge of local actors and Microjustice’s international know-how.