On the weekend of June 2nd, Neesons hosted a Legal Hackathon that brought together several hundred programmers, software designers, lawyers, and other interested parties. A dozen teams formed on Friday night and the coding began!
Teams were provided with several possible challenges including improving automated transcription, using AI to streamline document review, creating a system to pro-actively monitor file status, and a wildcard – anything they could think of that would improve the legal industry.
After 36 intense hours, teams presented their projects on Sunday morning. Five finalists were selected by judges for a five-minute presentation. At the end, three winners were announced:
Third Place: Law Bot
Provides an automated texting service to assist injured parties when they are in a motor vehicle accident. The prototype had limited scope, but the application guides parties through the initial steps of managing an accident. The end goal is to join parties with an appropriate lawyer. The client gets fast, effective information. Law firms reduce marketing costs and are provided with initial intake information, reducing admin costs.
Second Place: Secure Document Management
This team, powered by a 16-year-old programmer, claims to have innovated on encryption and created a simple, secure system for managing internal documents and sharing them with clients as needed. The system includes monitoring of time spent on editing documents, as well as tracking client budgets and providing notifications based on recorded time.
First Place: Case Val
The big winner created an AI-based prototype for evaluating the value of Personal Injury files using criteria such as geography, age of the plaintiff, type of injury, and income level. The team’s vision is that firms will improve their file selection, becoming more productive and spending less time on marginal files. Although the team focused their presentation on personal injury firms, it’s not hard to imagine that insurance companies that manage many files would find such a program very useful in triaging and assigning files internally for maximum efficiency.
The winners received a cash award, a place at Ryerson’s Legal Innovation Zone, and assistance from Denton’s legal technology venture fund. To find out more information visit the Legal Tech Hackathon website.
Nice work everyone!
