Suggested by 
Hoda Mehr
almost 2 years ago
Life is full of small unfair situations. A dispute with the HOA, a no-show family photographer who got prepaid, a fight with an airline over an unfair no-refund, money stuck in the banking system due to cyber fraud, and spam emails that don't stop no matter how many times you unsubscribe. These seemingly unfair situations levy emotional and financial burdens. They can be resolved if proper follow-up and legal expertise are used. Still, it is too time-consuming for an individual to acquire the skills and knowledge to pursue them, and professional legal services are too expensive. So people bear the emotional and financial damage and move on.
Generative AI has suddenly opened access to legal expertise and processes at a low cost. If you know the proper prompts and understand the legal processes, you don't have to be a lawyer to solve many of life's unfair situations. You can ask generative AI to write a legally binding letter to address a variety of situations and follow a process to win the case.
Existing Company
Are you interested in addressing this Unmet Need?
Are you interested in addressing this Unmet Need?
The race to use generative AI in legal is on. Harvey AI, a generative AI tool for law firms, already has a 15K waiting list of law firms to help with the compliance aspects of using generative ai.
https://www.sequoiacap.com/article/partnering-with-harvey-putting-llms-to-work/
https://www.harvey.ai/
Executive Director @ N/A
This is a highly regulated area needless to say, with concerns from many sides as to consumer protection, unauthorized practice of law, etc. The unmet need is indescribably massive. 92% of Americans don't get any or enough help with their legal issues and fend for themselves, clogging the courts and denying consumrs fair outcomes in a system that is set up for attorneys to run as a business, not for the benefit of their clients.
A nascent sector, Justice Tech, is focused on ethical technology to make the legal system more efficient, affordable and fair for everyone.
The nonprofit trade group justicetechassociation.org is bringing them together along with stakeholders including investors, policy advocates, tech leaders, academics, etc. in pursuit of increased access to justice.
Super important point!
That's why I think the success of legal tech is very much dependent on the willingness to partner with lawyers and not try to replace them. This has to be a legal ecosystem innovation and not building a product to replace it.
I’ll check out the nonprofit group you mentioned. I'm a big can't of system and ecosystem innovation and these types of organizations can and must be involved.
Executive Director @ N/A
Agreed!
The other key point to mention here is that because the addressable market is so vast, there's a unique opportunity for both ROI and impact of well--executed and informed tech solutions addressing this challenge. The best solutions are those built by those with lived experience with the problem they''re trying to solve, and in the case of justice tech these are also often underrepresented founders without the same networks or ability to take time off to develop their excellent idea.
Justice Tech Association and Village Capital are working to mobilize informed investment into the space and there's a huge amount of inbound interest. Ultimately the sector needs a venture studio that understands these nuances.
Good points 👍
Happy to connect further if you are passionate and excited about this unmet need.
Operations & Strategy
Interesting. I don't think either DoNotPay or Harvey AI are addressing the niche in your unmet need. Harvey AI is catering to large corporate law firms, and probably lessening (more likely changing over time) the work of paralegals and the rest of the legal team.
I dug into DoNotPay a bit and I don't think they're being combative. I think their positioning is actually muddled. They position themselves as legal help, but their tag line "Your AI Consumer Champion" is more accurate I think and why they're a paid subscription model. They're not really trying to help solve for one time legal disputes. They're trying to offer an assistant and privacy for the modern world; alt phone number for verification on apps/platforms to protect you from having to dole out your real number, assistance in closing bank accounts, cancelling free trials, and yes, help with a parking ticket.
Operations & Strategy
I think what you're suggesting is along the lines of AI generated legal letters to address a legal dispute, hopefully avoiding court. Having a lawyer draft up a cease and desist letter to another business, a threat of legal action for non payment of an outstanding agreement, or to put pressure on an ex-partner who hasn't paid child support, can cost hundreds of dollars. There are quite a few common situations in this niche I think, using a trained AI model to draft the most successful letters for a person could potentially save someone a lot of time and money.
Could be worth considering/looking into pairing this kind of service with a physical product, where the drafted letter would be printed out and mailed certified mail for an additional fee. With a good user base you could gather valuable data over time such as how many letters in X type of case typically has the greatest success rate (maybe it's two, and the platform can recommend next step escalation potential after that).
Yeh, I think there are two universes: 1) where people try to fight alone try to resolve their disputes, 2) where you can resolve the problems with proper legal processes
With AI we can all live in the second universe.
And that's the top of the funnel on innovating the legal system and using AI to even solve bigger issues.
Founder, MD @ PivotNorth Capital
https://donotpay.com/
I have a mindset disagreement with DoNotPay:
They think like a lawyer. Let's turn any life situation into a legal fight. Sue anyone and get out of parking tickets.
I think we can do and should do better than that. I don't believe corporations are evil and we should fight them. I believe there are legitimate disputes we have to be able to fight but we don't because it is hard.
Also, their business model is very combative! You have to pay a subscription off the bat to even see if you have a case. They look for a fight 😃
Great example!
The use case I have in mind is more everyday fights, less corporations. For example, you pay a photographer and she doesn't show up, or your HOA is being unreasonable.
I dig into do not pay any see what I can learn.
CEO | Founder | Managing Partner @ Platform Venture Studio
I like this but could you please reframe the unmet need as the problem statement and then add your solution as a proposed solution? I think the Unmet Need is something like "resolving legal issues is too expensive for most people, in many cases" or similiar.
Good idea! Updated