Fair Help Legal Aid

This is the home page of the website
This is where you actually upload the document and it processes.
This is a document summary that sums up all of the information that was provided in the original document but easier to read.
This is the ai chat that you can ask about legal matters and it will clarify any issues you might have.
This is where you can scroll down and see legal teams in the area and also emergency contacts and self help recourses.

Inspiration

Legal documents like contracts, eviction notices, or forms are confusing, even for adults. Many people who can’t afford expensive lawyers or advanced legal help struggle to understand what those documents actually mean. I wanted to create something that uses AI to make legal information easier to understand for everyone, especially for people who aren’t as fortunate or don’t have access to legal support. FairHelp helps by simplifying legal documents into plain language and connecting users to free resources. I also thought it would be cool if users could ask the AI questions directly about their documents so they can feel more confident and informed.

What it does

FairHelp lets users upload a legal document (PDF, DOCX, or image). The AI then:

Summarizes the document in simple English.
Highlights key points.
Allows users to ask questions about the document in a chat interface.
Provides links to free legal resources for further help.

How we built it

Frontend: React + TailwindCSS for uploading documents, displaying simplified summaries, and interactive chat.
Backend/API: FastAPI handles file uploads, document processing, and AI requests.
AI Layer: GPT-4 via /api/simplify for text simplification and /api/chat for answering user questions. Also used Harvey AI for deeper legal analysis.

Challenges we ran into

Sometimes the user's input wouldn't be visible after upload.
AI occasionally oversimplified and left out important details.
Connecting frontend, backend, and AI smoothly in a short hackathon timeframe was tricky.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Built a working AI-powered tool in a short timeframe.
Users can both simplify documents and ask questions interactively.
Clean, user-friendly interface with tabs, chat, and quick action buttons.

What we learned

How to integrate AI into a full-stack web app.
How to process PDFs and images using OCR and text extraction.
Importance of privacy and disclaimers when working with sensitive information.