Name in original language
Guia Prático da Justiça
Initiative overview
The Justice Practical Guide (Guia Prático da Justiça – GPJ) was created to address a persistent challenge in the justice system: citizens often struggle to understand legal information and the steps required to solve common justice-related issues. By simplifying and centralising information about procedures – such as contracts, family matters, consumer rights, mediation, and peace-court processes – the GPJ helps reduce informational barriers and prevents unnecessary travel to justice services. It builds on the principle that access to justice begins with clear, accessible information that helps people make informed decisions about their rights.
The initiative’s main objective is to offer a single, intuitive digital channel where citizens and businesses can quickly obtain answers written in clear, everyday language. To achieve this, in a few months, the GPJ will aggregate content from approximately 190 services available on the Digital Portal of Justice (Plataforma Digital da Justiça) and transform complex legal concepts into simple explanations. It’s an AI‑based engine – built, until now, on GPT‑4 models and reinforced with a curated legal knowledge base – providing natural‑language responses validated by justice experts to ensure accuracy and reliability. This combination of structured content and expert‑supervised AI aims to reduce information asymmetry and make justice services more understandable for all.
Over time, the GPJ has evolved from a static guidance tool into an intelligent conversational assistant (“Bot”), capable of helping users identify the correct service or procedure for their situation. The new version also incorporates mechanisms for user feedback, enabling continuous improvement and reinforcing human oversight in the decision‑making loop. By integrating with systems such as google maps and SIGA (platform for shedulling onsite appointments), the GPJ strengthens interoperability across justice services and enhances the user experience across web and mobile channels.
Looking ahead, the initiative is designed to scale. Future development includes expanding coverage to all 190 justice services, improving content governance processes, and ensuring regular updates as legislation and procedures evolve. Internally, the project is becoming institutionalised through structured governance models, dedicated teams, and alignment with wider digital-transformation programmes within the Ministry of Justice. As the platform matures, it is expected to extend it’s reach, support multilingual interaction, and serve as a model for replicating AI-enhanced public-service guidance across other sectors of government.
