If you are facing an injustice and don't know where to turn, a new AI assistant trained by lawyers on NSW legal protections empowers you to take action.
An innovative partnership between UNSW Kaldor Centre Director Professor Daniel Ghezelbash and the National Justice Project has created a simple way to exercise your rights: Hear Me Out, a free online platform that helps you to understand and lodge a formal complaint.
"The complaints process can be daunting at best and inaccessible at worst, but the power lies in being aware of your rights," says Prof. Ghezelbash.
Lodging a formal complaint involves reporting an issue to its most relevant authority. For example, if you believe you've been treated unfairly at work, you could inform the Fair Work Commission. Or the Fair Work Ombudsman. Or several other employment-related complaints bodies. It all depends on the details of your specific situation.
Australia has almost 300 official complaint bodies, says National Justice Project (NJP) CEO Adjunct Professor George Newhouse, each with different processes, eligibility criteria, and requirements. Hear Me Out is trained to clarify more than 75 authorities in New South Wales. Soon, it will expand to include Victoria.
However, Prof. Ghezelbash says, there's often no need to lodge a formal complaint.
"Just naming the right regulation and the right complaints body is often enough to resolve an issue with whoever failed you," says Prof. Ghezelbash.
The AI-powered platform asks you to describe the situation in your own words. It then tells you the aspects of your dilemma that relevant authorities might see as a valid issue and describes those organisations. Finally, it provides detailed information that guides you through preparing and lodging your complaint.
Adj/Prof. Newhouse says the information Hear Me Out gathers will help expose systemic problems and identify opportunities for impactful reforms. NJP, an independent, non-profit human rights law firm, owns the platform.
What problems can it help resolve?
Hear Me Out assisted with more than 400 complaints during a six-month pilot program. • 33% involved the police, legal system, human rights and discrimination. • 23% involved the public sector and were mostly directed to the NSW Ombudsman. • 16% involved consumer rights and business disputes.
For this article, we tested a theoretical scenario in which the police served an alleged offender a notice for an apprehended domestic violence order with the injured person's new home address and were then dismissive when she raised personal safety concerns.
Hear Me Out recognised this situation needed immediate support. It explained that the complaints process takes a long time and provided resources, including CopWatch, LegalAid and 1800RESPECT. We confirmed we wanted to lodge a complaint, and it advised seeking a lawyer, explaining that this complex situation had the potential for litigation.
Again, we confirmed wanting to lodge a complaint. Hear Me Out responded with a simple description of the issues it identified. It informed us of the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (LECC) and its role in police misconduct and administrative failure complaints. It provided a link to information on the LECC complaints process, including a
