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eLegalls: Enriching a Legal Justice System in the Emerging Legal Informatics and Legal Tech Era

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 July 2021

Sugam Sharma  and
Sony A.L. Reeta
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Abstract

The research footprint of Information Technology (IT) in a legal system has not grown with the same pace as it has penetrated other domains. More specifically, in developing countries such as India, where the digitalization revolution is underway, the growth of legal informatics (LI) is still premature and very limited traces of IT can be observed to assist and elevate the legal system, which still functions very much in an old school way. The faster growth of population and the diminishing proportion of judicial executives and the deteriorating law and order situation along with declining human rights demand the urgent evolution of LI to grow at a very rapid pace to attain its maturity. However, the human harassments are pretty prevailing across the nation, but its intensity increases manifold when it comes to the law-enforcement agencies tasked with responsible policing, more specifically, the state police, which often operates with compromised work ethics. The situation becomes more appalling with a vulnerable population, especially women. As a result, such a population often does not muster enough courage to go to a police station to file their complaints despite acute mental and emotional pain. This is to avoid further trauma by police harassment and ergo a large number of cases go unnoticed. An underprivileged rape victim, who tries to file a report by going to a police station is a classic example of such a situation; where she is not only denied, but also gets harassed by insensitive police official(s) at the station; consequently, a good number of such victims do not go and their cases are not reported.

In this research work, we have developed a computational framework, called eLegalls, an LI-enabled innovation, as an effective solution to the above stated issues. The eLegalls system facilitates users to file their reports to police in their geographic jurisdiction, through its efficient and secure interface without any in-person visit. The eLegalls will help the vulnerable population to avoid unwanted denial and impending harassment by the police official(s) at the police station. The system is also equipped with some secure and pertinent features for the lawyers or attorneys to efficiently advocate in assigned cases. The eLegalls is envisioned to eventually be a successful legal tech, effectively serving the community.

Keywords

eLegallsLegalInformaticsLawAutomationLegal Tech
Type
Articles
Information
International Journal of Legal Information , Volume 49 , Issue 1 , Spring 2021 , pp. 16 - 31
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by International Association of Law Libraries

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Footnotes

1

© Sugam Sharma 2021. Dr. Sharma is CSSM Systems Architect Leader & Researcher at Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA. He holds a PhD in Computer Science, Iowa State University, Iowa, USA. Dr. Sharma would like to acknowledge the CodeX at Stanford Law School, Stanford University, USA, where he is a regular participant in CodeX meetings. This has helped him to better understand the contemporary research and future trends in Legal Informatics. The author also acknowledges Prof. Santosh Kumar of University of Dar Es Salaam who reviewed the mathematical content of this article. Finally, Dr. Sugam Sharma acknowledges the late Sh. Chandra Raj Sharma, senior advocate, District Court of Bulandshahr, who exposed him to the legal domain for the very first time. The author dedicates this work to him.

2

© Reeta Sony A.L. 2021. Reeta Sony A.L. is an Assistant Professor in the Centre for Studies in Science Policy, School of Social Sciences at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. She holds a PhD in Information Technology-Law from National Law University, Delhi.

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7 See the Literature Review section for recent research on this area.

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23 Waltl, B., and Vogl, R. (2018). Explainable artificial intelligence the new frontier in legal informatics. Jusletter IT, 4, 1-10.

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25 Press Trust of India (Oct. 3, 2020). Rape victim dies by suicide in MP's Narsinghpur; family alleges police refused to register complaint. https://www.firstpost.com/india/rape-victim-dies-by-suicide-in-mps-narsinghpur-family-alleges-police-refused-to-register-complaint-8875311.html (Last accessed: Dec. 10, 2020)

26 This discussion is inspired by the comprehensive work of Engstrom and Gelbach (2020).

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