HiiL announces winner of SA leg of the Global Legal Hackathon 2019

Online mediation platform Kagiso has won the SA leg of Global Legal Hackathon 2019 (GLH2019), which was run by the Hague Institute for Innovation of Law (HiiL) and global law firm Baker McKenzie.

In a statement yesterday, HiiL said Kagiso beat eight SA teams at the SA event which took place at Baker McKenzie’s Johannesburg office in Sandhurst.

The startup will now move to the second round of the contest, in which a panel of international judges will decide who will get to attend a grand final in New York.

Kagiso uses machine learning to match cases with professional mediators who have the most relevant skillsets to be effective – such as subject matter experience or knowledge of local languages – and stores records using blockchain technology.

SA mediation platform Kagiso will proceed to the second round of HiiL’s Global Legal Hackathon 2019

The hackathon took place from 22 to 24 February. More than 6000 participants from 46 cities in 24 countries around the world took part to address issues relating to access to justice and the business of law.

Runners up at the SA leg of the competition were Bua, a voice-recognition system that allows victims of crime to record their own statements in their own language in a private “safe space” such as a kiosk or on their own phone.

Third was O Kae Molao, a local language TV show which speaks directly to poor communities around South Africa and offers legal advice and help with issues.

Additional prizes consisting of a ticket to the Legal Innovation and Tech Fest, which takes place in Sandton in June, and a place on the Futures Law Faculty Legal Tech Short Course, were presented to the top two teams from South Africa by tax consultancy AJM and legal outsourcing specialist Exigent.

HiiL’s Adam Oxford said the work that the teams showed on last Sunday evening was by far the most “consistently impressive” that he’s ever seen at an event of this kind. “It’s exciting to see so many well developed ideas emerging so fast,” he added.

All the participants are encouraged to enter HiiL’s international Innovating Justice Challenge, which will open for applications later this year.

Featured image: Kagiso’s Desigan Naidoo pictured pitching at the SA leg of Global Legal Hackathon 2019 last weekend (Supplied)