DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A LEGAL ASSISTANCE WEB PLATFORM

Access to justice in Nigeria remains severely constrained by structural barriers including cost, trust deficits, safety concerns, and limited reach of existing legal aid services. This project designed and implemented a secure, web-based legal assistance platform called Legal Aid Hub to address these challenges. The system was developed using React with Vite for the frontend and Firebase for backend services including authentication, database, and cloud storage. The platform supports three user roles: complainants, lawyers, and administrators, each with role-specific dashboards and functionalities. Complainants could submit complaints, upload evidence, and track case progress; lawyers could view assigned cases and update statuses after administrative approval; and administrators could verify lawyers, assign complaints, and manage the system. The Agile methodology was adopted for iterative development, with requirements gathered through desk research and brainstorming sessions. Functional and non-functional requirements were specified in alignment with Nigerian legal frameworks including the Evidence Act 2011 and Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023. The system architecture, use cases, data design, activity diagrams, dataflow diagrams, and entity-relationship diagrams were developed to guide implementation. Comprehensive testing was conducted using Vitest, covering unit, integration, and system testing levels. All planned tests passed with over 90% code coverage, validating the platform's functionality, security, and compliance. The platform successfully demonstrated that technology-driven solutions can reduce barriers to legal aid access, rebuild public trust in legal institutions, and provide secure channels for vulnerable populations to seek justice