Qase has launched a new service to help people find and work with lawyers online. Over half of Canadians will encounter at least one legal problem in any three-year period, and most never seek help from a lawyer.

Intimidated by lawyers

The service seeks to make it easy and convenient for people to get legal services, and ensure costs are transparent and predictable. Qase brings together technologies that are currently used extensively in healthcare and education and translates them into a legal context. In addition to incorporating proven collaboration tools, such as video-chat and document exchange, Qase will also use artificial intelligence to better match clients to the lawyers that can help them. Dan Zollmann, Qase’s co-founder and ceo, says “When people face a legal problem such as marriage breakdown, harassment, or a car accident, they need help fast, but don’t know how to get it. They’re intimidated by the process of finding a lawyer, worried about costs, or can’t take time off work to meet with a lawyer downtown. Now, by navigating to www.qase.ca, they can get the legal help they need anywhere, anytime.”

Billions of dollars

According to the Toronto-based Canadian Forum on Civil Justice, each year Canadians spend more than C$7.7 billion resolving legal issues. While other sectors such as travel and retail embraced consumer friendly technologies years ago, legal services still rely on phone calls, face-to-face meetings, cheques, paper documents and signatures. Mr Zollmann says, “Over the last decade, law firms have invested heavily in adopting technology, but most of it has provided little to no direct benefit to their clients. At Qase, we start with people first. We believe getting legal help should be as easy and convenient as booking a flight or shopping online.” Qase was founded in 2018 by Thomas Spraggs, a personal injury lawyer and legal technology innovator, and Mr Zollmann, an engineer and management consultant with 20 years experience in healthcare and education.