Working on the Digital Justice Project

Kate Wells writes about her experiences of working on the Digital Justice Project.

Let me start this blog post by introducing myself; I’ve just finished my second year of studies on the graduate entry law degree. My first degree was also with the Open University, and was in Maths. After finishing my first degree I became a computer programmer, software architect and a Project Manager, but then I decided to take another direction; Law.

I wanted to take part in an Open Justice project to gain experience using Law in a practical way. The Digital Justice project of creating a legal “bot” neatly tied together my IT experience with my law studies.

At the start of the project we were given several different options for the kind of bot we could build, and I chose one which assisted people with the law surrounding housing repairs in rented accommodation, mainly because option spoke to me the loudest to me, from my personal experience, and that of my family Our brief was to create a couple of personas to relate the bot to, a persona being an imaginary person who would be a user of the bot. The personas helped us focus ourselves and to contain the scope, and then using Josef (a bot building tool) we gradually built up our bots. Josef itself was very straightforward to learn and understand, even if it possessed a couple of quirks (now fixed) which made it frustrating to use occasionally. Through monthly meetings with the project team, we learnt more and more about building the bot, and understood where the challenges were, and the concerns our fellow project members faced. We were guided every step of the way by the project leaders.

One of the main challenges I faced was keeping the bot simple to use and, as it is aimed at non-legal professionals, the language in it had to be “plain English”. I wanted to have as wide a scope as possible, taking into account social housing tenants as well private renters, but the law in this area is incredibly complicated, and differs across the home countries of the United Kingdom, so it was necessary to be specific about the kind of problems the bot was able to address. By the end of the project the bot was mainly aimed at helping write letters to landlords regarding repairs that needed doing, and directing the users of the bot on whom to contact to seek assistance in taking matters further (essentially how to go about taking one’s landlord to court if repairs are not made).

I found the Digital Justice project enormously interesting, and it was a great learning experience. I now understand how a “bot” of this nature would be very useful for the public, as it may be a first port of call for people to understand what steps can be taken, in order to ask their landlords to make repairs, or to follow up if the landlord does not fulfil their obligations. A bot may also be able to ease minds (as pending repairs can be stressful), give direction, and assist in communication with landlords.

To sum up: if you’re thinking of getting involved with an Open Justice project, I can only say “go for it”! It is a very worthwhile use of time, and you will learn a lot!