Legal Innovation
Affordable legal representation is more out of reach than ever before. Here in Seattle, about 60% of all family law litigants go unassisted. In a world where 25% of women are abused in their lifetime, that scary 60% quickly becomes monstrous.
A new solution is needed to ensure the people of the Pacific Northwest can protect themselves when an attorney isn’t a financial option.
While there are many legal drafting tools available to law firms, there are almost none that are accessible to the Pro Se public. And of those that exist, they are either unwieldly, full of dense verbiage, or running on ancient technology. Further, platforms like HelloDivorce and LegalZoom only intend to help with uncontested or cookie cutter cases. Such tools would fail the moment a litigant needed anything more specific or high conflict – like a contested motion.
This is the story of how Clio has changed us.How it Works
Songbird is our custom-built document generation platform, designed and coded completely from scratch.
In a form pleading state like Washington, Songbird can gather data from a litigant via a highly accessible questionnaire interface, contextualize the data against known objectives the client defines, and then draft the appropriate bundle of motions documents to match instantly.
Further, Songbird comes complete with a declaration builder tool that helps litigants stay organized with a click-and-drag chronology of their story. It even accepts, labels, and appends evidence exhibits in an orderly index automatically; or separates them into a sealed document cover sheet (if appropriate).
How it Interfaces with Clio
Songbird is not intended as an attorney replacement. It does not recommend specific actions, nor does it have editorial control over any pleadings. Clients that use it are given word docs as outputs, which they are welcome to continue editing or complete at will.
If at any point a Pro Se user wishes to retain the services of Hemmat Law (perhaps they want assistance filing their documents, or representation at a hearing) they can do so directly from Songbird’s interface.
At that time, all their entered data and any uploaded exhibits will be immediately available to HLG staffers in the Clio ecosystem – allowing us to take over their case seamlessly and without delay.
Our Hopes for Songbird’s Future
Songbird presently only helps with Protection Petitions, as DV victims are in need of the most assistance and are often in the most vulnerable financial position. But our vision of the future does not stop there.
By 2026 we plan to roll Songbird out to all of Washington State family law motion’s practice.
