Public Funding for Transparently Limited

The way people access family-law services has changed for good; * The removal of legal aid for many cases has led to an increase in Litigants-in-Person (81% of family court cases now involve at least one person who represents themselves); * In 2023, the UK government unveiled plans to introduce compulsory mediation for separating parents, in an attempt to keep family disputes away from court; * The introduction of the Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act (2020) means that a couple can now apply for divorce under a new, joint representation model (where one lawyer represents both parties) transparently's mission is to improve client access to legal services; to ensure that they achieve the best outcomes possible, by being able to receive as much legal input and advice as they are able to afford. The company wishes to extend the functionality of its current family-law technology platform, to enable legal-professionals to deliver multiple legal-service delivery-models and to enable clients to make use of mediation, joint-representation and traditional individual-representation solutions, as their needs require. transparently wish to provide clients with the ability to be involved; in the preparation and management of their legal case, where they have the need and resources to do so; to take full responsibility, as a Litigant-in-Person, with the ability to receive ad-hoc legal advice; to support their own experience and ensure the most favourable outcome.

I co-founded transparently four years ago, as a result of my own experiences and after identifying a 'gap' in the legal services market. An opportunity to 'make it better'; to use technology to protect vulnerable individuals, improve the client experience, increase lawyer productivity and reduce costs for all involved. My goal has always been ultimately to increase access to justice, particularly for those most disadvantaged. This project will build upon the successful outcome of a recent Innovate UK research project and will extend elements of our current legal communications & client management platform, to enable supervised communication to take place between individuals and for independent expert assessment to be made. My vision is to protect vulnerable individuals in situations where they are required to maintain contact with a former-partner post-separation, for example prior to a court hearing, or where individuals who may be deemed 'high-risk' are co-parenting a child. As a company we are passionate about promoting integrity, and removing conflict and acrimony wherever possible; particularly our wish is to better understand the context and dynamic of relationships, so as to make better use of alternative methods of dispute resolution and to reduce the need for matters to be addressed in court.

transparently is looking to expand its existing product, to introduce a unified communications feature, to clients and legal professionals within Family Law. The intention is to address the additional workload, manual cross-referencing and over-reliance on email, resulting from the Covid-19 self-isolation measures and to improve the ability of private individuals to access justice effectively. Recognising the importance of personal wellbeing in this difficult time and the emotional pressures that exist within the Family Law sector, it is important that we enable private clients to reduce communication costs and law firms to collaborate effectively, both internally and with clients, to ensure that those clients are proactively advised and protected at all times. the extension to impact funding will enable the platform to provide additional facilities to support and manage legally privileged conversations

"This project is to investigate the application of AI techniques to the analysis of conversational data, to augment the role of legal professionals during any discussion, negotiation or dispute resolution. transparently will focus initially on family law, specifically the support of all processes relating to separation and divorce. The project will investigate and seek to gain the know-how, to enable future tools to be developed to support next generation services; a machine-supported 'second opinion', during emotional and difficult negotiations. The intention is to remove potential bias and offer greater transparency in legal decision making. The company is passionate about promoting integrity and removing conflict and acrimony wherever possible; particularly to reduce the need for matters to be resolved in court."