# LexFlow NG — Product specification (research-led prototype, 13 November 2026)

## Product mission
Help Nigerian people discover appropriate legal support and help licensed practitioners—including BSOE Legal Systems Lab graduates—deliver accountable, timely, comprehensible services. **LexFlow is not a law firm or replacement for independent legal judgment.**

## Status
Static prototype only: sample professionals are fictional, no verification or legal advice, no client database, no dispatch, no court sync, no external AI, no payment/escrow. Local in-memory changes vanish on reload; exports are user-initiated.

## User roles and permissions
1. Public visitor: anonymous educational pathways and non-personal search by location/practice/language; no privileged data or feedback about actual lawyers.
2. Prospective client: real production phase only; authenticated enquiry, verified identity as appropriate, informed privacy notices, lawyer-controlled engagement, private messaging, milestone visibility.
3. Practising lawyer: verified roll/enrolment and current standing, firm membership, controlled matter access, confidentiality, trust accounting boundaries.
4. Firm administrator: manage membership, billing for software subscriptions, audit logs; no blanket read access to client privileged records without professional basis.
5. Verification officer: review documents, mark verification outcomes, revalidate periodically, suspend and provide appeal process.
6. Compliance officer: moderate adverts, claims, fees, legal-publishing boundaries and allegations, including lawyer complaints.
7. Trainer/graduate: sandbox and incubator only; course completion is NOT evidence of being called to the Nigerian Bar.

## Public marketplace
- 36 states and Federal Capital Territory in six geopolitical zones, with town/LGA support in later release.
- Search dimensions: practice area, state, city/LGA, spoken language, service channel, availability updated by lawyer, accessibility and actual independently verified status.
- Profile: factual name, roll identification internally, year of call, practice details, responsible individual or firm, verification date, geographic reach, professional contact method and privacy notice.
- Prohibit unverifiable rankings and comparative 'best', success-rate claims, outcome guarantees, purchased 'verified' badges and undisclosed paid placement.
- Advertising and remuneration policy review by Nigerian-qualified legal counsel (RPC 2023; LPRO 2023 and changes).
- No per-case percentage referral model pending robust legal opinion. Prefer fixed SaaS subscription for professional tools; any advertising revenue must be ethical and transparently disclosed.

## Public-to-lawyer intake (future, NOT active)
Search → profile review → urgent or ordinary issue classification → lawyer enquiry (minimum necessary data) → lawyer verifies jurisdiction/competence/availability → conflicts gate → quote and transparent written scope → engagement accepted → secure intake → matter timeline → outcome feedback. Never imply a relationship before accepted engagement.

## Pillar 1: police-station support
- Accessible urgent intake with explicit privacy notice; collect only needed information and obtain lawful authority.
- Distinguish unverified family report from verified custody; status must not be described as 'lawyer assigned' until a qualified lawyer accepts.
- Prioritise human review, safety, location checks, referral to legal aid as appropriate.
- No promise of release and no bail-negotiation fees. Police bail is free. Lawful professional fees and reimbursable expenses separately identified.
- State ACJL differences; ACJA context may not be a universal substitute.
- Every action time-stamped, attributed to an authenticated actor and independently auditable.
- Do not automatically generate or send a rights petition without lawyer review.

## Pillar 2: matter/court management
- Matter timeline with statuses as lawyer-generated reports, not official court record.
- OCR/cause-list parsing is **suggestion only**, requires human verification against court document and jurisdiction. Retain source document and verification record.
- Hearing reminders only after confirmed dates; channel opt-in for SMS/WhatsApp; recipient selection and confidentiality safeguards.
- Evidence vault needs tenant isolation, encryption, least privilege, retention schedule, legal holds and immutable audit trail.
- Court integrations only through formal available APIs/agreements; do not claim nationwide live sync.

## Pillar 3: client portal and documents
- Guided questionnaire, approved templates per jurisdiction, revision history, citations and approvals.
- Draft → factual validation → applicable-law check → partner/qualified lawyer approval → client delivery.
- Mark AI output as unverified, forbid auto-submission and block privileged data to consumer AI.
- For CAC, do not claim filing until actual official confirmation received; check official prerequisites and current fees.
- Accessible mobile-first client update timeline and download/export feature.

## Pillar 4: marketplace and incubator
- Self-serve profile preparation and practice positioning for graduates; public status blocked until lawyer credentials independently verified.
- Peer-mentor matching only where ethics, confidentiality and consent permit.
- Billing for SaaS should be separate from collection of professional fees. Payment escrow is NOT available merely because a PSP has transfer or split settlement.
- Complaints route, human review and appeal; reasonable neutral search ordering.

## Payments model: three separate money flows (decided 14 November 2026)
LexFlow does not take custody of legal fees. The three flows never share an account.

| Payment | Who receives the money | Arrangement |
|---|---|---|
| BSOE course fees | BSOE | BSOE's existing Paystack business. The only payment live today. |
| LexFlow software subscriptions | LexFlow's operating business | A separate, appropriately registered Paystack business. Fixed fees, independent of any client fee. Not built. |
| Clients' legal fees | The lawyer or law firm | Directly into the lawyer's own reviewed bank account or the lawyer's own Paystack page. Never LexFlow. |

### How a client pays a lawyer
1. Client chooses a verified, published lawyer and requests an engagement: a practice-area label, their name and one contact, and an acknowledgement that fees go directly to the lawyer. No description of the problem is collected.
2. Lawyer confirms the engagement after a conflict check, or declines. Scope, fees and payment terms are agreed between lawyer and client outside this record.
3. Lawyer issues an invoice in the app: own reference, a fixed fee label, amount in naira, due date. The invoice shows the lawyer's approved payment details.
4. Client pays the lawyer directly, outside LexFlow.
5. Lawyer reports the funds as received, which generates a receipt. The client then confirms or disputes it.

### What "payment status" means
LexFlow cannot see the transaction. Status is **reported by the lawyer** and then **confirmed or disputed by the client**, and every receipt says so. It must never be shown as "verified by LexFlow".

### Safeguards
- Payment details are shown to clients only after two independent reviewers confirm the account name matches the verified lawyer or firm. Any change returns them to review and blocks new invoices; invoices already issued keep the details approved at the time.
- Only a 10-digit Nigerian account or a Paystack-hosted payment page is accepted, to limit redirection fraud.
- Invoices and receipts carry no case facts: fixed labels and a reference code only.
- A lawyer who is suspended or no longer verified cannot accept engagements or issue invoices.
- No percentage, commission or referral fee on any legal fee. Platform revenue is fixed subscriptions only, with a free verified basic profile, subject to professional-conduct review.

### Not decided or not built
Holding client money on account, refunds and dispute resolution (a dispute is recorded, not adjudicated), VAT and withholding tax on invoices, firm-level accounts, subscriptions, and any automatic confirmation from Paystack.

## Architecture for production
Frontends: progressive web app (client/public + professional portals) using accessible responsive UI. API: versioned backend, Node/TypeScript or .NET, deployed in approved region with WAF and rate limiting. IAM: OAuth/OIDC, MFA for lawyers, RBAC/ABAC, firm and matter tenant isolation. Data: Postgres with row level security, encrypted object storage for evidence, background jobs for consented notifications, secrets vault, SIEM audit logs. Search: scoped indexes containing no privileged case facts. AI: retrieval from licensed and checked legal sources, provenance/versions, strict non-advice boundaries, lawyer-sign-off and evaluation. Payments: only after banking/PSP/legal advice; do not label split payments 'escrow'. Integrations: CAC and courts only where authorised; notification providers only with opt-in and minimisation. Backup and disaster recovery. DPIA, NDPA 2023 controls, breach and DSAR procedures.

## Main entities (minimal)
users(id, role, contact, consent); lawyer_profiles(id,user_id,verification_status,roll_ref_internal,areas,locations,languages); firms(id,org_status); memberships(user_id,firm_id,role); clients(id,firm_id,contact_ciphertext); enquiries(id,client_id,lawyer_id,conflict_status,urgency); engagements(id,enquiry_id,scope,fees_reviewed,accepted_at); matters(id,firm_id,engagement_id,jurisdiction,status); events(id,matter_id,actor_id,stage,timestamp,verified_by); documents(id,matter_id,storage_key,classification,revision,approved_by); access_logs(id,actor_id,resource,operation,time); payment_records(id,engagement_id,provider_ref,classification); subscriptions(id,firm_id,plan,status); reports(id,subject,category,state,reviewer,outcome). No lawyer directory data or payment credentials should be fabricated.

## User experience details
- Public: mobile first, English with later Nigerian-language translation professionally reviewed.
- Urgent intake: show prominent 'not emergency dispatch' status unless real staffed service has passed acceptance tests.
- Track progress with known verified milestones; do not expose protected police/court data to unverified family contacts.
- Preserve local-copy options, consented communication and granular disclosure.
- Display verified dates, source and caveat when describing current law.

## Release phases
0. This synthetic frontend and research.
1. Independent Nigerian legal opinion + stakeholder discovery with lawyers, clients, NBA representatives and legal-aid organisations; standards, DPIA and fee framework.
2. Production marketplace, lawyer verification and practice subscriptions for limited pilot geographies, e.g. Lagos and FCT; no criminal dispatch or payment escrow.
3. Secure client portal, lawyer-approved document workflows and matter updates; audit and security testing.
4. Controlled police-station pilot with trained, credentialled duty counsel and humane support model; court data OCR with manual sign-off.
5. Expand verification and operations across all states and FCT as actual supply and compliance capacity permit.

## KPIs (hypotheses, not claims)
Verified practitioners by jurisdiction; confirmed first response time; enquiry-to-engagement conversion; share of matters with client updates; verified document rejection/defect rate; missed-date rate; complaint rate; satisfaction and accessibility measures. No fabricated '80% reduction' or financial projections.

## Compliance prerequisites for launch
Nigerian lawyer review of RPC and advertising, LPRO, possible fee-sharing/intermediary issues, data protection and confidentiality, police bail and state criminal-procedure law; business entity and legal-services boundaries; consumer protection, payment-provider authority, consent for messages, cross-border processing, cyber controls, accessibility. Professional bodies or official sources should verify licence/standing via an agreed protocol.

## Research / official resources
HiiL Justice Needs and Satisfaction Nigeria: https://hiil.org/research/justice-needs-and-satisfaction-in-nigeria/
Nigerian Bar Association: https://www.nigerianbar.org.ng/
Nigeria Data Protection Commission: https://ndpc.gov.ng/
Nigeria Legal Aid Council: https://legalaidcouncil.gov.ng/
Nigeria Police Force: https://www.npf.gov.ng/
Nigerian Corporate Affairs Commission: https://www.cac.gov.ng/
Nigeria's laws and professional rules must be verified in their latest authoritative versions at launch. This document is product-planning research, not a legal opinion.