Issue-Spotting
Identify the specific legal issues present in a person’s situation, story, or document—so they can be guided to the right help, information, or next step.
Task Description
When people first seek legal help, their stories are often complex and mixed with multiple problems—housing, family, debt, benefits, or employment issues all intertwined. The task of issue-spotting is to accurately recognize which legal issues are actually involved. This may include analyzing a narrative, reviewing uploaded documents or notices, or asking clarifying questions to surface hidden or secondary problems.
Effective issue-spotting allows both people and systems to route the matter to the correct information, tools, or services. For AI tools, this means detecting legal problem types and sub-issues from natural language or document text, while avoiding false positives or omissions. For human helpers, it’s the foundation for triage, referral, and tailored guidance—ensuring that people start on the right path toward resolution.
Related Projects
Hear Me Out
A free, AI-assisted platform that helps people in Australia describe their experience and get tailored guidance on where and how to lodge complaints, starting with NSW and Federal bodies and expanding to Victoria.
LeaseChat
LeaseChat is a free tool that analyzes residential leases, answers questions with references to the document and local law, and drafts landlord communications.
Justice Connect Legal-Problem Classifier
An AI model—developed by Justice Connect with the University of Melbourne—that classifies people’s free-text descriptions of problems into legal issue categories, now available under a no-cost licence to eligible Australian not-for-profits.