Debated in Parliament on 12 Jan 2022.
Mr Murali Pillai asked the Minister for Law since the launch of iLAB, a free legal chatbox that provides customised legal information on topics that lay people will find relevant such as family law, in February 2020 (a) what has been the take-up rate for this service in the past year; and (b) what plans does his Ministry have to promote the use of iLAB.
In 2021, iLAB registered a total of 47,579 queries in 3,408 sessions, and an average of about 240 users per month. It has received good feedback, averaging four out of five stars in post-usage surveys.
LAB has been working with various organisations such as the Community Justice Centre (CJC), the Law Society Pro Bono Services (LSPBS) and various social agencies, including PAVE, Star Shelter, Big Love and Heart@Feiyue to promote the use of iLAB.
To improve the effectiveness of iLAB, LAB has been increasing the topics covered to make it more useful. At launch, iLAB covered Divorce, Family Violence, Custody and Guardianship, Maintenance and COVID-19 legal issues. Since then, two more topics – Deed of Separation, and Deputyship – were added in December 2021. The Deed of Separation module also includes a basic Deed of Separation generation tool. Another topic, Monetary Claims, will be added by Q1 2022.
PAPERCUTS