JusticeHub was developed in direct response to feedback from clients, staff, and community partners who shared frustrations with long wait times, limited intake hours, and an overly complex process. Legal Aid of North Carolina consistently heard the need for a more accessible, centralized entry point, better tools for partners assisting applicants, improved staff workflows, and stronger support for language access, literacy, and digital inclusion.
Each year, the organization received roughly 300,000 calls to its helpline, far exceeding available resources. At the same time, Legal Aid of North Carolina was navigating a statewide freeze on IOLTA funding, a key source of support for civil legal aid. Despite these challenges, the organization continued to innovate to ensure people can reach help when they need it.
We met with Legal Aid of North Carolina intake staff staff, community partners, clients, and interns to fully understand the current intake process and pain points experienced by applicants, staff, and community partners. Then, we collaborated with Legal Aid of North Carolina to design an intuitive, mobile-friendly portal that allowed North Carolina residents to access legal aid while also ensuring the tool was intuitive and useful for staff and community partners. We also wanted to make sure the portal was fully accessible, to be a useful tool for all people regardless of ability and proficiencies.
JusticeHub is mobile-friendly, available 24/7, and built with accessibility at its core to support users with low literacy, disabilities, limited English proficiency, or limited access to technology.
Through JusticeHub, individuals can apply for Legal Aid services online without waiting on hold, quickly see whether they may qualify for help, upload documents directly through the system, check the status of an existing application, and access legal information, self-help guides, and referrals. Applicants can also receive support from LIA, Legal Aid of North Carolina’s AI-powered legal information assistant, which helps users navigate the intake process and find answers to common legal questions.
Scheree Gilchrist, Legal Aid of North Carolina’s Chief Innovation Officer, emphasized: “Getting legal help should not be another source of stress when someone is already facing a crisis. JusticeHub reflects what our communities and partners told us they needed: a clearer, faster, and more human way to connect with legal help. Working alongside A2J Tech allowed us to translate those needs into a system that removes barriers for applicants and helps our staff serve more people effectively.”
The portal is built on Stacker, with some client-facing workflows on Zite (formerly "Fillout"), and the entire database is secured on Airtable. All intake data is pushed securely via APIs to LegalServer (their case management system) and now, “intake workers who once handled 25 to 35 phone calls per day can review up to 100 digital applications.” As a result, Legal Aid of North Carolina has seen more application volume and a higher acceptance rate.
Within three months of launch, JusticeHub had over 20,000 users!
Want to learn more and see it in action? Check out our recent webinar “Reimagining Access: A Case Study in AI-Powered Online Intake Portals.”
