Marrickville Legal Centre Staff

For vulnerable clients of the Marrickville Legal Centre, LegalBot also offers the opportunity to get real-time advice without the stress of being put on hold or having to repeat their case to different employees. The virtual assistant or „LegalBot” mimics human interaction and provides an interface between the client and the Marrickville Legal Centre. LegalBot helps clients determine eligibility for services and arrange a private consultation with a lawyer. The service will also provide basic legal information on transport issues – a high-volume, low-complexity issue that accounts for many of the centre`s initial requests. In the last census in 2017, the municipality`s legal centres had to turn away 112,735 people each year in Australia. According to the National Association of Community Legal Centres, this group represents „anyone who has had to dismiss a municipal legal centre because they were unable to assist them in a timely manner, or because of a lack of resources, lack of centre expertise, conflict of interest, or the centre`s eligibility policy.” Every day, the Marrickville Law Centre receives hundreds of calls from people who need legal help. Despite the best efforts of staff and volunteers, excessive demand creates a bottleneck for volunteer admissions officers who respond to calls. This age-old problem requires innovative solutions. New South Wales Attorney General Mark Speakman with Vasili Maroulis (Senior Counsel, Marrickville Legal Centre), Maeve Redmond (Head of Fundraising and Communications, Marrickville Legal Centre) and Codie Croasdale (Paralegal, Marrickville Legal Centre). A subsequent evolving framework will provide access to this technology to other municipal legal centres and have the capacity to renew their triage to better manage limited resources. How can artificial intelligence be used to improve access to justice? The Marrickville Legal Centre is leading the way in this technology by developing a chatbot that will transform service delivery to municipal legal centres thanks to a $250,000 investment from the New South Wales government`s new Access to Justice Innovation Fund. This innovative approach will support and complement MLC`s customer referrals by relieving phone contact and freeing up more time to help high-need customers.

AI technology will help avoid duplication of adoption and customer contact, an issue that drains the time and resources of many customer-facing community service providers.