Spain’s #HackTheJustice hackathon organised by the Instituto de Innovación Legal (IIL), has awarded prizes to three legal tech teams, EnTurno, BotMySelf and QuiereteV!VA
The prizes were handed out at the Parcent Palace of the Ministry of Justice and was attended by members of Spain’s judiciary. The three winning groups’ innovations were:
EnTurno – created a tool for legal aid lawyers to communicate, exchange information and schedule hearings both among themselves and with the Bar association in charge of coordinating them. They were given the everis award by Carlos Tabernero, Director for Public Industry at everis.
QuiéreteV!VA – designed a tool to make it easier for victims of gender-based violence to access immediate help; they were given the Thomson Reuters award by Ignacio Carnero, Communications Director at Thomson Reuters, as well as the Ilunion Accessibility Award, by Verónica Martorell, Director of Accessible Technologies at Ilunion.
And, BotMySelf – a tool to facilitate the legal relations between e-commerce platforms and their users through chatbots, received the KPMG award from Francisco Uría, its managing partner.
At the event, Spanish Minister of Justice Rafael Catalá, set out the need for digital innovation in the legal industry, highlighting that from the outset it had been one of the priorities of his Ministry.
The ILL said that Catalá acknowledged that in the administration of justice ‘this process has started late and slow, but there is no turning back’.
The hackathon was organised by María Jesús González-Espejo, founding member of the Instituto de Innovación Legal, along with Laura Fauqueur, (seen above far left and second from left respectively).
The legal tech and access to justice pioneers added that they had made several requests to the Minister at the event, which included:
- the review and modernisation of law degree studies so that new lawyers can meet the technological challenges;
- more investment in technology that will benefit both legal professionals and citizens; more support for initiatives such as #HackTheJustice;
- the promotion of partnerships between public and private sector;
- more transparency and open data from institutions;
- and finally, policies that promote greater diversity and in particular an increased presence of women in the governing bodies of organisations and companies in the legal industry.
If you would like to see a video of the event, please see below, (in Spanish).