Computer Assisted Access to Justice via Formal Jurisprudence Modeling

TL;DR

This paper presents a formal jurisprudence modeling approach for an internet-based self-assessment system that helps users evaluate their legal rights, validated through a model of workers' rights under Israeli law.

Contribution

It introduces a novel formal model of jurisprudence integrated into a self-assessment system, enabling scalable, personalized legal aid via the internet.

Findings

Model accurately represents Israeli workers' rights.

System effectively guides users through legal assessment.

External experts validate the model's practical usefulness.

Abstract

This paper discusses an internet-based system for enabling people to self-assess their legal rights in a given situation, and a development methodology for such systems. The assessment process is based on a formal model of the relevant jurisprudence, exposed to the user through an interview. The model consists of a multi-dimensional space whose dimensions represent orthogonal jurisprudence aspects, and a decision graph that guides the user through that space. Self-assessment systems can revolutionize the way legal aid organizations help their clients, as they allow these organizations to deliver personalized help at internet scales. The proposed approach is validated through an implementation of a model for workers' rights when their employment ends. This model, describing Israeli law and developed in cooperation with a worker rights NGO, was ratified by external experts as accurate enough to be useful in real cases.