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 downloadable 19-page fact sheet of highly detailed and insightful guidance.
How does the platform work?
Hear Me Out uses a large language model (LLM), an advanced AI that learns and predicts the relationships between words, phrases, and contexts. This means people can describe situations in their own words and Hear Me Out will recognise the contexts that match the eligibility criteria for formal complaints.
If the language doesn’t match its training, the LLM reverts to standard knowledge. For example, in the LECC test case, we asked Hear Me Out how to protect ourselves while the complaint was addressed. It responded with a bullet-point list of useful tactics and concluded the session by advising us to call 000 if we were in immediate danger.
The comprehensive platform took years to develop, and global law firm K&L Gates provided holistic support throughout. The legal content on Hear Me Out includes highly detailed information on complaint submission pathways and fact sheets, prepared by K&L Gates with pro-bono expertise from Wotton Kearney, Gadens, Hall & Wilcox, King & Wood Mallesons, Baker McKenzie, Squire Patton Boggs, and Clifford Chance.
Hear Me Out was developed under a grant from the NSW Access to Justice Innovation Fund awarded to the UNSW Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law at UNSW Law & Justice in 2023. The development involved extensive collaboration with Macquarie University, the NSW Ombudsman’s Office, and social justice tech company Portable Australia. A recent grant from the Victorian Legal Service Board will enable the platform to assist more Australians in future.
Disclaimer: Hear Me Out is owned and operated by the National Justice Project. UNSW is not responsible for any legal information provided by the platform.
Key Facts:
Legal experts have developed an AI assistant to help people resolve grievances.
The platform can assist with potential formal complaints related to:
Health, Ageing & Disability;
Police, Prisons & Legal;
Human Rights & Discrimination;
Housing;
Education & Training;
Data & Privacy;
Employment;
Business, Goods & Services;
Media & Advertising;
Finance, Insurance & Banking;
and Oversight & Regulation.
The AI is trained on formal complaint processes for NSW and federal authorities, and will soon grow to include those in Victoria.
Contact details:
Lauren Martin
UNSW Kaldor Centre for Refugee Law
Tel: +61 407 393 070
Email: [email protected]