munyaradzichiondegwa/i-magistrate

i-magistrate is a court preparation and legal education platform designed specifically for defendants in Zimbabwe. The project was born out of a critical need to bridge the legal literacy gap, where many citizens face the justice system without adequate understanding of their rights, court procedures, or defense strategies. # ⚖️ i-magistrate **A court preparation and legal education platform for defendants in Zimbabwe's magistrate courts.** > i-magistrate is an educational tool. It does not provide legal advice, and using it does not create an attorney-client relationship. It is a standalone product and is not affiliated with, linked to, or endorsed by any court, law firm, NGO, or other organisation. --- ## Table of contents - Overview - Key features - Architecture - Tech stack - Getting started - Available scripts - API overview - Localization - Privacy and data handling - Testing and deployment - Contributing - Roadmap and known gaps - License --- ## Overview i-magistrate helps someone facing a criminal charge in a Zimbabwean magistrate's court understand what they are up against and prepare for it, without pretending to replace a lawyer. A user picks the crime category and section that matches their charge. Each section is tagged to the relevant Zimbabwean legal act and jurisdiction, and carries a minimum number of defence profiles and questions an admin must define before it can go live. The user then works through a series of gated questions about the facts of their case. Every answer is scored by the backend's `ProgressiveGatingEngine`: some answers trigger an instant lock onto a specific defence profile, others add weighted points toward one or more profiles until a profile crosses its lock threshold, and a profile can be configured to supersede weaker rivals once it wins. When a profile locks, the user is shown a script built from it: an overview, a suggested opening statement, examination lines, closing submissions, and educational notes on what to expect in court. This can be exported as a PDF to bring along. If they decide they want a lawyer, the app can show a directory of lawyers who have self-registered and been approved by an admin, filtered by area of expertise, but only after a defence profile has locked. i-magistrate does not push users toward hiring …