How a Montreal-made online tool helps sexual harassment victims navigate the legal system

Understanding the legalities around sexual harassmentand assault can be one of the first hurdles thatvictims face when deciding whether to pursue an aggressor.

Montrealers Ritika Dutt and Amir Moravej have developed a new online tool to help.

They launchedBotler AI, a robot that scans thousands of court documents on behalf of each user, then emails the userlegal precedentsrelated to their situation.

"A lot of people struggle to know if their rights have been violated,"DutttoldCBC'sDaybreakrecently.

"They don't know if they're justified in feeling that way."

Dutt and Moravej are hoping their tool will help more victimscome forward.

Using the app and interacting with a robot, people"don't have to be afraid of being judged," Moravejsaid.

"Basically, a tool to help navigate the legal system in an easier way."

The bot doesn't take any identifiers like name, age or phone number, and all the data it collects from a useris encrypted.

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TheWeinsteineffect

When Dutt and Moravej started building Bolter AI, their goal was to help people navigate legal situations, but they weren't sure which issue to address.

Then the Weinstein scandal broke this fall.

Media mogul Harvey Weinstein was accused of sexual misconduct by at least 75 women. Those women alleged Weinstein had been sexually abusive, describing a range of behaviour from making inappropriate comments to rape.

Not all of those women went to police.

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The scandal and resulting #MeToomovementspurredtheBotlerAI team to focus on developing their tool for sexual harassment cases.

They designed the friendly bot to engage with users in an informal waythat starts with support and emojis.

"Sexual harassment isinexcusable, and I'm really sorry if you've had to deal with it.My aim is toempower youby teaching youwhat your rights are," the bot says in a chat message.

As the chat progresses, the bot asks the user to respond yes or no to its questions.

Leveragingcriminal court documents

The bot has access to 300,000criminal court documents from the United States and Canada.

With that information, it's able to analyze if a law was violated, and which law,depending on where the events took place.

It also asks for written details in an incident report which isanalyzedand emailed back to the user along with sections of the Criminal Code related to what happened.

Dutt said that the incident report gives the user something with which they can go to authorities.

She hopes this extra help will empower allegedvictims who are mulling whether topursue legal action against their aggressor.

Canadian surveysput the reporting of sexual assault at about five per cent of cases overall making it the violent crime least likely to be reported to police.

The two developersstress, however, that Botler AI doesn't offerlegal advice. That'ssomething only a lawyer can do.

The team is now looking at other areas of the lawwhich can leverage AI, to help people navigate different aspects of the legal system.