Date of Completion

5-4-2022

Degree Type

Honors Thesis - Campus Access

Discipline

Computer Science (CMSI)

First Advisor

Dr. Andrew Forney

Abstract

Briefcase is an ongoing project by the LMU Applied Cognitive Technologies (ACT) Lab in conjunction with the Loyola Project for the Innocent (LPI) to develop a platform which solves several problems experienced by the LPI team and law firms more generally. LPI provides free legal counsel to those who believe they have been wrongfully convicted, and takes up their case to attempt to exonerate them. The problem faced by LPI is that the case files under review are often thousands of pages long, and as a small team lacking digital collaborative tools, the number of cases they can process each year is limited. LPI has over 1000 cases in their queue, and are realistically able to process 30 a year; the team needs tools to help process these massive trial transcripts. Briefcase is a web app which provides the ability to upload these documents into a collaborative cloud where the team can work simultaneously on the document. Features include the ability to tag and comment on lines, create witness and character profiles, view a mini-map of the case’s structure, organize and view supporting documents, etc. Additionally, Briefcase uses artificial intelligence to surface helpful information to the users, for example, identifying uses of the fifth amendment, witness testimony, exhibit mentions, etc. The project’s aim is to use these features to increase the throughput of the LPI team and hopefully lead to more exonerations of the wrongfully imprisoned.

Comments

The current status of the work is private and confidential. As a result, slides from a presentation of the project have been uploaded instead.

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