I have long thought that rule-based systems have great promise for creating online legal advisory systems. So I am glad to see the entry of a new, web-based system for creating systems.
Jureeka.net “is a web service that lets lawyers and law students automate their expertise and provide real-time guidance to clients. Jureeka was motivated by the belief that law can be made accessible to the public, given the proper tools.” It appears to offer an open-source approach for law students and professors and a commercial platform for others. A demo and tour provide some illustration for how the system works but absent registering and trying to build a rule-base (which I did not do), it’s hard to tell how easy or hard it is to build a system.
The About page does not provide information about the company or the people behind it. I cannot speak for the academy, but for business buyers, I think that the lack of information is a potential hurdle.
In spite of these caveats, I decided a blog entry was warranted because any development in the legal rule-engine / expert system platform arena is worth noting.
[More from Prism about online legal services: blog posts; articles; list of law firms offering interactive, online services]