Designing legal services for all
A legal services market in which only one in three individuals – and one in ten small businesses – with a legal problem get expert advice isn’t working as well as it should be.
In sector after sector digital technology has made life easier for customers, giving them more choice and control. In legal services though, technology has made less of an impact.
The £500,000 Legal Access Challenge supported innovative digital technology solutions that directly help individuals and SMEs to better understand and resolve their legal problems.
Delivered by Nesta Challenges in partnership with the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the Challenge called for legal tech startups, law firms, alternative legal providers, advice organisations and law schools to develop ambitious direct-to-user products, services and platforms.
The Legal Access Challenge supported eight finalists, selected from a total of 117 applications to the Challenge, whose innovations will make legal services more accessible and affordable individuals, families and small businesses. Backed by a £50,000 grant and expert support programme, each finalist had six months to develop their solution. Two winners were announced in April 2020 and were each awarded an additional £50,000 prize to further develop their solutions.
The Challenge has been made possible by a grant from the £10m Regulators’ Pioneer Fund launched by The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and administered by Innovate UK. The fund enables UK regulators to develop innovation-enabling approaches to emerging technologies and unlock the long-term economic opportunities identified in the government’s modern Industrial Strategy.
The conclusions from the Challenge have now been published – find out more about them in the Final Report.
Insights from the Challenge
Throughout the Challenge we’ve published a number of reports, articles and blogs. Take a look at the Insights page to read these, and read a summary of the findings from the Challenge in the final report.
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