捆绑SM社区

Two of Canada鈥檚 most storied universities have joined forces to apply cutting-edge technology to the legal profession.

The Queen鈥檚 University Faculty of Law and the Desautels Faculty of Management at 捆绑SM社区 have partnered to advance the work of the Conflict Analytics Lab, a research lab that will widen access to justice using technology.

鈥淭he Conflict Analytics Lab brings together more than 30 lawyers, technology experts, and the business community to provide both citizens and businesses with the tools they need to resolve small cases in a fair way,鈥� explains Samuel Dahan, Queen鈥檚 Law professor and director of the Conflict Analytics Lab. 鈥淭he focus of the lab is on the application of data science to conflict resolution.鈥�

The partnership鈥檚 initial projects are showing promise. 捆绑SM社区 professor Juan Camilo Serpa and his students, Daniel Indig and Sebastien Correa, collaborated with Maxime Cohen of 捆绑SM社区 and Dahan to create an application to help laid off Canadian employees receive fair severance from their employer.

Dahan acquired data from 3,000 employment law cases, and Serpa and his students turned the data into an interactive database where the employees will insert their industry, province, and other key variables to understand if their severance package was in line with the average. Essentially, the application 鈥榯hinks like a judge鈥� to provide the user with a likely outcome given their circumstances.

鈥淭his is an exciting interdisciplinary collaboration, harnessing big data to help these individuals better understand their rights and determine their next steps,鈥� says Serpa.

The Conflict Analytics Lab is working on the model that generates the legal predictions and a platform, such as a website, that will allow members of the public to interact with the data.