Finalist:
Best IT Implementation of the Year 2009
Published
on July 4, 2009
There
are over three million cases pending in India's 21 high courts and 26.3 million
more cases pending in subordinate courts across the country, not taking into
account quarter of a million under-trials languishing in jails. Why can't
technology make a small contribution to these big numbers?
A
portal called AdvocateKhoj desires to contribute in that line. Positioned as
India's Dedicated Case Post System for Consumers to help people find a
well-qualified advocate for their legal issues, the web platform is aimed at
connecting the lay man to the judiciary.
The
website allows any user to create a free account and post his case details,
which would in turn be viewed by a set of advocates who would give their inputs
on the specific case. Based on their inputs, the user can choose one of the
advocates to fight his/her case, or in certain cases, get more clarity on
his/her case.
On
the other side, the website has a pool of subscribing advocates who are paid
registered members with the portal. When a query comes in from a user, it is
redirected to a group of advocates based on the location of the user.
If
a query comes in from Bangalore, it would be redirected to the 15 odd
registered advocates from Bangalore. Depending on the complexity of the case,
the user would get the responses.
|
Company Scenario
|
|
Before Deployment
|
|
·
Over
three million cases pending in India's 21 high courts and 26.3 million more
cases pending in subordinate courts across the country |
|
After Deployment
|
|
·
800
concurrent cases being discussed by a pool of advocates from 250 locations
|
|
The
user can search and investigate the background, experience and expertise of the
advocates by using the communication platform free of charge.
He
also has the option of remaining anonymous till he has decided on which
advocate to engage, at which point the consumer may opt to fully disclose his,
identity.
At
the same time, advocates can filter out cases based on their area of expertise.
This reduces the off-area and spurious cases to the advocates' table and helps
advocate focus on his area of expertise.
The
site also has an interesting resource section called Law Library, which has
sub-categories like Legal Tips, Rules, Glossary and a rather exhaustive list of
250 acts in alphabetical order.
Technologically,
the portal is powered by Java, PHP, MySql, Javascript, SSL, HTML, DHTML, CSS,
and .NET Technologies, with hardware powered by Dual Xenon processors, centers
with redundant Fiber Entrances and redundant Tier One Backbones.
