CourtIQ: Making Legal Rights Accessible Through AI

The justice gap in our society is wider than ever. Many individuals, especially those from low-income households, struggle to navigate the legal system due to limited awareness of their rights, fear of the complex legal process, and restricted access to qualified legal help. At the recent Women in AI RAG Hackathon at Stanford University, our team tackled this challenge head-on by creating CourtIQ, an AI-powered legal assistant that earned us 2nd place.

The Problem We Solved

The current legal system often feels like a maze to those who need it most. Whether it’s a tenant dealing with a security deposit dispute or an employee facing workplace discrimination, many people don’t know where to start or what their rights are. This uncertainty often leads to inaction, allowing injustices to persist.

Our Solution: CourtIQ

CourtIQ is designed to be your first step toward legal clarity. Here’s how it works:

1. Smart Case Analysis: Users can input their legal questions in plain English (like “My landlord is not returning my deposit”)
2. Intelligent Retrieval: Using the power of vector search through Milvus by Zilliz, CourtIQ searches through a vast database of legal cases from the Caselaw Access Project to find relevant precedents
3. Clear Explanations: Through Llama’s advanced language capabilities, CourtIQ transforms complex legal jargon into clear, actionable summaries
4. Practical Next Steps: The system not only explains your rights but also helps connect you with qualified lawyers specializing in your type of case

Technical Innovation

Our solution leverages cutting-edge AI technologies:

• Vector embeddings from the Caselaw Access Project stored in the Milvus database
• Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) for finding relevant legal precedents
• Llama 3.2 for generating clear, user-friendly explanations
• A simple Gradio interface making it accessible to everyone

Real-World Impact

Looking at our prototype in action, when a user asks about a landlord withholding their security deposit, CourtIQ immediately:

• Identifies relevant tenant rights laws
• Explains the 30-day return requirement
• Details what deductions landlords can legally make
• Provides clear next steps for the tenant

Looking Forward

CourtIQ is just the beginning. Our roadmap includes:

• Adding multimodal data like video legal proceedings
• Developing success potential scores based on case histories
• Enhanced lawyer matching with filters for cost, success rate, and location
• Detailed case journey previews

Conclusion

Winning 2nd place at the Stanford hackathon was exciting, but the real victory is the potential to help countless individuals understand and assert their legal rights. CourtIQ represents a step toward democratizing legal knowledge and making justice more accessible to everyone.

The project demonstrates how AI can be used not just for technological advancement, but for meaningful social impact. As we continue to develop CourtIQ, we remain committed to our core mission: bridging the justice gap and ensuring that legal rights are not just written in books, but accessible to all who need them.

This project was developed by the DOPE team at the Women in AI RAG Hackathon at Stanford University, showcasing how technology can be leveraged for social good.