Winners of the Polish edition of the Global Legal Hackathon
The Polish edition of the first Global Legal Hackathon ended on Sunday evening, 25 February 2018. Twelve of the interdisciplinary teams that formed up on Friday reached the finish line. Wardyński & Partners was one of three local organisers of the event.
Three teams stood on the winners’ podium.
The highest rating went to the app “PomagaMy,” which helps women suffering from domestic violence to access free legal assistance.
In second place was the app “Prawnik pierwszego kontaktu” (primary-care lawyer), which enables users to quickly understand the nature and aim of legal papers served on them (e.g. from the court or the bailiff). The app analyses a scan of the document and displays tips, for example highlighting the amount and basis of the claim, the relevant deadlines, and measures that must be taken. The app can also signal that the claim may be time-barred. After this initial analysis of the document, the user can use the app itself to contact a lawyer who specialises in the relevant field.
The app called “What to do?” came in third. It is aimed at young lawyers and trainees. The app operates using a knowledge base created and evaluated through social media. Young lawyers can draw on this knowledge base and then contribute their own experience. The jury appreciated the app’s potential for other professions as well, for example when doctors need quick access to knowledge from different specialties. Lena Marcinoska and Jarosław Karlikowski from Wardyński & Partners were members of this team.
The jury also awarded honourable mention to two other projects. The first automates the process of translating long and complicated documents into language understandable for audience without a legal education, through techniques of grouping and prediction of keywords using machine learning and natural language processing.
The other honourable mention went to the “Smart DD” app enabling transmission of files to clients without the risk of loss, distortion or unintended disclosure. This solution enables encryption of the file, determination of the date and time of receipt, and verification that the files transmitted and received are identical.
Each team included lawyers, programmers, business analysts and user experience (UX) specialists. The competitors developed prototypes for solutions using blockchain, machine learning, big data, process automation, natural language processing, chatbots, and other approaches. The Global Legal Hackathon was held simultaneously in 40 cities around the world.
The hosts of the Global Legal Hackathon in Poland were publishers Wolters Kluwer, law firm Wardyński & Partners, and the Coalition for Polish Innovations. The partners included the LegalTech Polska Foundation, the e-Państwo Foundation, the Code for Poland community, the European Law Students’ Association—ELSA Poland, and HubHub.
The law firm WKB Wierciński Kwieciński Baehr was a sponsor of the event.
