Legal-Tech for Global Access to Justice: A Ghanaian Lawyer’s Vision for a Multilingual AI-Powered Legal Assistant

A ground-breaking proposal by a Ghanaian lawyer and legal innovator, Ama Oduma Annan, merits close attention for the way it illustrates how artificial intelligence could reshape access to justice around the world.

Drawing on advanced study and research in cybersecurity law, data privacy law, artificial intelligence, and internet law, Annan envisions a multilingual, AI-powered legal assistant aimed at addressing one of the most persistent challenges facing legal systems globally: the exclusion of millions from meaningful access to justice.

Annan’s proposal is rooted in a compelling and timely premise that justice cannot exist where the law remains inaccessible to ordinary people. Drawing on her legal training and sustained engagement with underserved communities, she envisions a scalable legal-technology solution aimed at democratizing legal knowledge and empowering individuals who are routinely shut out of formal legal systems.

The World Justice Project cites more than five billion people, representing nearly two-thirds of the world’s population, lacking meaningful access to justice.

(https://worldjusticeproject.org/news/measuring-justice-gap-report, last visited September 2025).

This reality is acutely felt in many low-and middle-income countries, including those in Africa, where legal infrastructure is often under-resourced and legal services remain financially or geographically out of reach. Presently, in Ghana, everyday legal challenges such as land disputes, tenancy disagreements, employment conflicts, and family law matters frequently go unresolved due to costs of legal services, limited legal literacy, language barriers, and procedural complexity. Annan’s proposed platform directly responds to these structural barriers by offering a tool designed for lay users rather than legal professionals.

Unlike traditional legal databases or translation tools, Annan’s envisioned platform would operate as an intelligent, adaptive, and culturally aware legal assistant. Accessible via mobile devices, it would provide users with real-time, jurisdiction-specific legal guidance tailored to the laws of the individual’s country. Using natural language processing, the system would allow users to describe legal problems in everyday English language and receive clear, actionable information about their rights, obligations, and available remedies. Importantly, the platform would support multiple languages, including indigenous and regional dialects, ensuring relevance for users who do not operate comfortably in formal English or colonial languages.

Cultural sensitivity would be a central feature of the design. The system would be built to recognize social norms, trade usage or language for businesses, customary law considerations, and community realities. This would be a critical feature especially in areas such as family law, domestic violence, land ownership, and inheritance, where legal rules often intersect with tradition.

Beyond legal guidance, the platform would assist users in generating basic legal documents such as complaints, affidavits, tenancy agreements, and simple contracts through guided, plain-language prompts. Voice-to-text and text-to-voice functionality would ensure accessibility for users with limited literacy or disabilities, while offline functionality and low-bandwidth optimization would make the system viable in rural and underserved areas. Where issues require human intervention, the platform would facilitate referrals to legal aid providers, pro bono lawyers, and local justice institutions. In this way, it would function not as a replacement for lawyers or courts, but as a complementary tool that strengthens the justice ecosystem.

The potential applications are far-reaching. For instance, a market trader in Accra, Ghana could better understand tenancy obligations. A farmer in a rural district could receive guidance on land documentation. A migrant worker could learn how to pursue unpaid wages. A refugee in Greece could understand asylum procedures and timelines in their native language. Small businesses and informal entrepreneurs often excluded from legal protections could gain foundational legal literacy on contracts, licensing, and compliance, reducing vulnerability to exploitation and supporting economic formalization. Women and gender minorities, who frequently face heightened barriers to justice, would benefit from discreet, private access to legal information without the risks or stigma associated with visiting public legal offices. In this way, the platform functions not only as a legal tool but also as a protective and empowering resource.  Technically, the proposed system would combine machine learning models, expert systems, and legal ontologies trained on statutes, case law, and administrative procedures. While advanced language models would enable natural interaction, accuracy would be ensured through rule-based engines continuously updated by legal professionals in each jurisdiction.

Data privacy and ethics are central to Annan’s proposal. User information would be anonymized and securely stored, with transparent consent mechanisms and safeguards against bias or misinformation. While Annan’s proposal is global in scope, its implications for Ghana are particularly significant. As the country continues to modernize its justice system and expand digital governance, innovations of this nature could reduce court backlogs, improve legal literacy, and strengthen public confidence in the rule of law. Annan’s work is deeply informed by lived experience. Through her engagement with people from vulnerable communities, she has witnessed how fear, misinformation, and legal opacity perpetuate injustice. Her proposal reflects a broader commitment to ensuring that the law serves as an instrument of empowerment rather than exclusion.

At its core, this multilingual AI-powered legal assistant represents more than technological progress. It embodies a vision of justice rooted in dignity, fairness, and accessibility, one that reflects positively on Ghana’s growing contribution to global legal innovation. As conversations around artificial intelligence and governance continue worldwide, Annan’s vision offers a reimagined model for access to justice in the twenty-first century.