JusticeText: managing video evidence
This article is part of our series featuring the founders of our 2020 Duke Law Tech Lab startups, early-stage legal tech companies with a mission to increase access to justice. Written by Justin Reinking (Duke Law JD ’22).
Devshi Mehrotra and Leslie Jones-Dove founded JusticeText to help public defenders manage video evidence more efficiently and effectively.
As students at the University of Chicago, Devshi and Leslie became increasingly aware of the inadequate resources available to public defenders. Public defenders have always faced significant time constraints due to their high volume of cases. However, with body camera footage and increasing use of technology, there is an even greater amount of evidence for public defenders to evaluate when making life-altering decisions for their clients.
Concerned about the disparate impact on low-income communities and communities of color, Devshi and Leslie consulted with the Cook County Public Defender’s Office to see how they could use their computer science degrees to help remedy the problem.
After their consultation, Devshi and Leslie created JusticeText to help public defenders be more efficient when working with video evidence. JusticeText creates interactive transcripts for video evidence uploaded by public defenders. Users can search the transcript for key words or portions of long videos and create clips to be used for trial. The tool pairs selected parts of the transcript with the same portion of the video evidence.
JusticeText allows public defenders to quickly review large amounts of video evidence and make more effective decisions for their clients. Examples of the tool’s usefulness include jumping to when Miranda Rights are read, a specific portion of a deposition, or to a moment in a jail call.
JusticeText is currently operating pilot programs with the Alameda County Public Defender’s Office in California, the Harris County Public Defender’s Office in Texas, and the State of Minnesota. The pilot programs provide constant feedback for improvements to JusticeText and an initial revenue stream for the company.
As co-founders of the company, Devshi Mehrotra serves as the Chief Executive Officer and Leslie Jones-Dove serves as the Chief Technology Officer. JusticeText hopes to expand its programs to even more public defender’s offices and plans to begin working with national criminal defense organizations.