This week we caught up with Sam Flynn co-founder of Josef Legal to talk legal innovation, law tech and how his new legal chatbot builder, Josef, is set to increase access to the law for the general community.

What is Josef and how does it work?

“Josef is a digital lawyer backed by a chatbot builder.

On our no-coding-required platform, legal organisations can build and launch their own chatbots without the need for expensive developers. These chatbots can help people resolve a legal problem, including by preparing a personalised document for them (such as a letter or agreement). Because all of these interactions are automated, it allows legal organisations to provide their services at scale.”

How did the idea for the platform first come about?

“Josef was borne out of a meeting in late 2016 with the heads of the major community legal centres in Australia. We were invited to help figure out how technology could be used to deal with access to justice issues.

The answer that we arrived at was a legal chatbot that could provide legal information and assistance to help people resolve their own legal problems.

That soon evolved into a chatbot builder which any legal organisation could use to build their own bot.”

What problem has Josef been developed to help solve?

“Josef was developed to bridge the access to justice gap.

This problem is demonstrated by the fact that of the 8.5 million Australians who face a legal problem every year, only 4 million seek any kind of legal assistance. The problem is worse in the US and the UK, where we are also operating.

For our business clients (such as law firms), this also represents an enormous latent market and an extraordinary opportunity which can be captured by using Josef to automate and scale services, streamline their organisations and connect with clients.”

What is Josef’s potential utility for community legal centres and law firms?

“Josef’s utility is to allow legal organisations to automate and scale legal services, streamline their organisations and connect with potential and current clients.

For community legal centres, this allows them to help as many people as possible, particularly in the face of a disconnect between increasing demand and decreasing funding. For law firms, this allows them to help more people while also letting them access a huge, unaddressed market, which in the US alone is valued at USD$50B.”

How can members of the public use your technology to find legal answers and who ensures the accuracy of legal information supplied?

“The content of the chatbots is developed by the community legal centres and law firms that build them. In this way, Josef brings expert legal knowledge to end users.

At the moment, all chatbots will be launched by the community legal centre or law firm, such as onto their website.

The first chatbot that has been launched on Josef is Health Complaints Assist.

This is a free chatbot which helps users make a complaint about health services, including by automatically drafting a letter for them! This chatbot is improving health services, one experience at a time, and could help thousands of people each year.”

What sort of reception has Josef received among the legal industry? Has the response surprised you? 

“We have had an extraordinary response from the legal industry.

In a few short months, we have signed up clients across Australia, the US and the UK, from CLCs to a large fintech company in New York.

Some people have found this surprising, because the legal industry is renowned as a conservative industry. However, we think it makes perfect sense given the ongoing conversation about the need for the legal industry to technologise and modernise and the fact that it doesn’t make sense that so many people are not getting the legal help they need.

We have the legal expertise, and now we have the technology, so why wouldn’t we help them?”

What are a few long-term goals that you would like to achieve?

“In the long-term, we want to change the way that legal services are provided to ensure that people get help whenever and wherever they need it. We want to get to the stage where people who have a legal problem seek legal assistance, just like people who have a health problem see a doctor.”

What are the cost implications for users?

Law Week is an opportunity for the legal industry to celebrate and promote a better understanding of the law and legal processes to the general public. But it’s not a unique activity, as similar celebrations centred on the promotion of the rule of law also take place internationally in May.

Celebrated each year on 1 May in the United States (today for Australia), Law Day is a day in the legal calendar set aside exclusively to celebrate and recognise law as the glue of American society as well as its fundamental role in maintaining law and order and providing a solid foundation for the United States to become a powerful world leader.

First recognised by President Eisenhower on 5 February 1958, the first day in May each year has since been celebrated as Law Day. Eisenhower said:

In a very real sense, the world no longer has a choice between force and law. If civilization is to survive it must choose the rule of law. On this Law Day, then, we honor not only the principle of the rule of law, but also those judges, legislators, lawyers and law-abiding citizens who actively work to preserve our liberties under law.”

Local bar associations and legal education organisations in the United States now use Law Day to promote legal education for students.

Each year in Australia, every State and Territory’s Law Society and the Law Council of Australia actively promotes the law and legal education during Law Week. It is celebrated across Australia to further an understanding of the law and its role in society as well as to raise awareness in the community about how to access legal services and advice.

A broad understanding of the law, Australia’s Constitution, the role of government, the parliament and the court system is critical to an appreciation and respect of Australian law and its role in protecting our democratic way of life.

Although it is not an official government holiday, isn’t it about time that the Australian government started strongly supporting initiatives like Law Week which nationally recognise the rule of law, advance access to justice and educate the public about the law’s pivotal role not only in Australia’s history of Federation but also our current legal system? Dedicated national legal education days, like Law Week, are an important tool for raising public interest and awareness around the law and legal issues.

Naturally, since we love love love love (LOVE!) the law, we’re 100% behind Law Week. It’s why we’re in the business of social impact legal publishing – to entertain, empower and inspire young non-lawyers about their everyday legal rights – not just for one day, or one week, but 365 days each calendar year.

So let’s help non-lawyers to see the law, less like an arbitrary and unattainable set of principles available only to a privileged few, and more like an easily intelligible part of everyday life that’s accessible to everyone.

Will you be participating in Law Week 2017? Let us know in the comments!

Further Information

To see a full list of Law Week 2017 activities (15-21 May 2017) happening in your State or Territory visit:

• ACT Law Society – Law Week
• Law Society of NSW – Law Week
• Victoria Law Foundation – Law Week
• Queensland Law Society – Law Week
• Northern Territory Law Society
• Law Society of South Australia
• Law Society of Western Australia – Law Week
• Tasmania Law Society

Code for Australia (CfA) and Victoria Legal Aid (VLA) have just released a new online tool designed to make it easier for community members to gain access to legal assistance.

All code published by the CfA team is open source, meaning it can be replicated in other organisations who have similar needs. The code can be found on Github.

• Legal Aid Checker
• Code for Australia
• Victoria Legal Aid

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