3 ms·

I'm working on a startup that does this. Right now, we are in the attorney network recruitment stage. But if you contact me, I may be able to mechanical turk

• throwaway4353 8y ago
  Thank you, this sounds interesting, I'll probably reach out to you in the next few days!
• jason_slack 8y ago
  Hi Nathan, Actually, I had been working off and on creating a platform that allows lawyers to file, respond to court documents, etc. The goal was to eliminate the need to show up to court and have opposing council ask for a continuance because they only received the documents "the day before" and hadn't had time to review them. There were other aspects to it. I haven't worked on it in years, but perhaps we could chat sometime if this sounds interesting to you.
  • gamblor956 8y ago
    If your platform is as described, it has no chance of succeeding. If attorneys have only received the documents the day before a court appearance, changing that to online delivery doesn't address the fundamental problem that the opposing counsel hasn't had sufficient time to review the document dump. Judges really, really hate it when lawyers do that to opposing counsel, to the point where it is no longer uncommon for them to sanction lawyers for data dumping at the last minute in addition to granting a continuance so that the other side can properly review and respond.
    • jason_slack 8y ago
      And so that is the point. If documents are not exchanged fairly a continuance can be issued without ever getting to court first and wasting the systems time. If not saying the idea was perfect. I talked to 30 lawyers in different parts of the world to help hash out the idea. Mixed thoughts from them. I think I still have all the notes. My point here was to Share an idea because I’m not doing this project anymore (way back early 2007) and maybe someone else can execute better etc
      • gamblor956 8y ago
        And so that is the point. If documents are not exchanged fairly a continuance can be issued without ever getting to court first and wasting the systems time. Right, and they can already do that without going to court, by filing (or for more modern courts, emailing) a request for continuance to the judge's clerk. This has been a thing for literally decades, which is probably why you got mixed thoughts from the lawyers you talked to. There are plenty of low-hanging fruit in the legal tech market to go after. This isn't one of them.
        • jason_slack 8y ago
          Right, but this happens automatically based upon time. The mixed reactions were 1. There isn’t a chance to argue with the judge in an automated system. Maybe extenuating circumstances need to be talked about and this step is cut out by a computer deciding to notify the judge that a continuance should be given due to time. 2. It’s another system to be paid attention to when lawyers desks usually have cases on paper, in folders, in a briefcase. It’s hard to break tradition.
          • gamblor956 8y ago
            Ah so the fundamental misunderstanding is that you did not understand how the process works and so you proposed a platform that didn't work with existing processes, and so was rejected by essentially everyone you talked to. Continuances are discretionary. Judges are already quite good about handling extenuating circumstances on their own. AIs can barely understand simple human speech; they are nowhere close to notifying judges about whether continuances are appropriate. And I'm not sure why you keep pushing this--the problem you've addressed is not a major problem in our court system (or even a minor problem) and the solution isn't worth more investment of time/effort than as an extremely minor feature in a court docketing/filing system.
• sigfubar 8y ago
  If I were you, I'd invest a few hundred bucks in a well-made landing page w/e-mail subscription form.