When Manny Griffiths worked with a personal injury lawyer after his wife’s automobile accident, he was surprised by the lawyer’s lack of awareness and communication regarding their claim. At times, the couple didn’t contact their lawyer for months and found the entire process really opaque.
Griffiths dug deeper and came upon he wasn’t the only one with this problem. Through his research, he found that nearly half, 44%, of negative Google reviews for law firms that work with people relatively than other firms were from consumers who were unhappy because of a breakdown in communication. But despite the fact that consumers feel like they can not contact lawyers, lawyers said they spend 37% of their day communicating, Hon’s survey of 41 lawyers found.
“People just want to be talked to and know what’s going on because they’re in this emotional and stressful time,” Griffiths told TechCrunch. “I started talking to law firms and really dug into their challenges and discovered that they were interrupted every three minutes on average throughout the day and were so busy that they didn’t have time to properly communicate with their clients.”
Griffiths and his co-founders began the business Now try to fill this communication gap with technology. Hona is a communications portal that plugs into a law firm’s existing case management software and sends automatic updates to clients. The goal, Griffiths said, is to allow customers to track their case as easily as tracking an Amazon shipment. This clearly had an impact on law firms, as the company saw strong demand even before its February 2022 launch.
“We actually did some mockups, asked someone to design the product on Figma, and said, ‘Let’s try to sell this before we even write a line of code and tell people we can release it by ‘x’ date.’ Griffiths said. “I just started calling law firms and managed to register five firms before we wrote anything.”
Since then, the Lehi, Utah-based company has continued to be in demand. It increased its revenue by 400% in 2023, but didn’t provide exact revenue numbers. Hona currently cooperates with over 500 law firms and has been used by 308,000 clients. A $9.5 million Series A round led by Costanoa Ventures with participation from Ludlow Ventures, Soma Capital and Y Combinator has just closed.
Griffiths said he doesn’t anticipate Hona will replace or automate all communications between lawyers and clients – neither side wants that – but relatively it is going to simply eliminate clients calling their lawyer just for an update or a query about legal jargon. Clients can even contact their lawyers through Hona and gain access to educational materials on the conditions and information on the stage of their case.
Case updates, educational resources and answers to customer questions are generated by artificial intelligence, Griffiths said. He added that the company was very careful in incorporating AI due to the sensitive nature of legal matters and the crucial need to get the right information. To combat potential disinformation, lawmakers determine what Hony’s AI system can access.
“Initially, we allowed law firms to upload approved talking points, approved metrics and information relevant to their case,” Griffiths said. “Our model may grow a little slower than other AI models. At first we limit what it can refer to, but it will be more precise in advance. This is a huge initiative for us and allows us to ensure that they do not receive false information.”
The company selected to focus first on consumer-facing legal practices reminiscent of personal injury and criminal defense because Griffiths predicted that was where the biggest friction would occur. Customers of those firms are more likely to lack a good understanding of the legal system compared to a business customer who is more likely to work with lawyers. In the future, the company hopes to expand its activities to include B2B legal practice.
Hona is also working on expanding its offer. It recently launched an e-signature tool for documents and plans to add services reminiscent of invoicing and payments.
“Our passion is the customer at the other end of the spectrum,” Griffiths said. “Lawsuits are difficult and anything legal is stressful. Hona helps law firms become more efficient and free up their time, as well as help consumers and really give them peace of mind as they pursue their case.”