Technology for access to justice · suite PortalWithLasers
Fala Tu
Speak during the appointment: Fala Tu knows whether it is a relato, providência or cota and writes in the style of each field of the Portal of the Public Defender's Office.
Visit the official siteThe problem
At an appointment, whoever is seeing the client has to listen to them and type at the same time. What gets left out while typing often means listening a second time, and the queue moves more slowly.
Relato, providência and cota
They are different fields of the Defensoria’s Portal, and each one has its own way of being written.
- Relato (the account) is the client’s story. It comes out in their own words, with no fact added. The questions from whoever is seeing the client stay out, and a short answer becomes “Perguntado, o assistido respondeu que…” (“Asked, the client replied that…”). Strong language stays in quotation marks, exactly as it was said.
- Providência (the action) is the follow-up: what will be done as a result of the appointment.
- Cota (the case note) is the submission in the case record, in formal language.
That is why the AI cannot “improve” the relato. One extra fact there changes the story of the person who was seen.
Gender is not guessed either: it comes from the Portal’s records, and the text says assistido, assistida or a pessoa atendida (Portuguese for a male client, a female client or the person seen).
What was built
A Chrome extension that transcribes speech with AI and recognises which Portal field the user is in. The AI writes a draft, which appears in a preview for review and only goes into the field after a click on Inserir (Insert). Installing the extension is no use unless you are a Portal user.
The best result comes from the client’s own voice: whoever is seeing them runs it as an interview and hands over the microphone. It also works when the client speaks another language. The text comes out in Portuguese, with the version in their language right below, so they can read it on the appointment printout.
Speaking instead of typing also helps people with a physical disability or a condition of the upper limbs, and spares the hands and wrists of anyone who spends the day at the keyboard.
What went wrong
Fala Tu is in a pilot because not every institutional machine has a microphone. Anyone with a built-in microphone, on an office computer or an institutional laptop, can already install and test it.
Gallery
Screens from the demo on the institutional site, with fictitious data:
