HackForge Srijan

Legal services platform connecting users with lawyers across India. Features user registration, lawyer discovery, and legal advice access.

About The Project

HackForge Srijan addresses the challenge of finding legal help in India by providing:

• What it solves: Connects users seeking legal advice with qualified lawyers across 700+ cities
• What makes it unique: Combines lawyer discovery, bar council data, and user-friendly registration system
• What was learned: Laravel backend architecture with Sanctum auth, Bootstrap responsive design, and clean API structure

The platform includes models for Users, Advocates (lawyers), Bar Councils, and Customers with a Bootstrap-based frontend for browsing and registration.

Built With

• Laravel 11 (PHP 8.1+)
• MySQL 8.0+
• Bootstrap 4.5.2
• HTML5, CSS3
• Laravel Sanctum (API authentication)
• Vite (asset bundling)

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• PHP 8.1 or higher
• Composer
• MySQL 8.0 or higher
• Node.js & npm

Installation

1. Clone the repo

   git clone https://github.com/tumansutradhar/hackforge-srijan.git
   cd hackforge-srijan

2. Set up environment variables

   cd backend
   cp .env.example .env

   Edit .env with your database credentials

3. Install packages

   composer install
   npm install

4. Run the application

   php artisan key:generate
   php artisan migrate
   php artisan serve

   Backend runs at http://localhost:8000

5. Frontend (static files)

   cd ../frontend
   python -m http.server 8000

   Or open index.html directly in browser

Usage

The platform provides:

• Home page (index.html): Browse lawyers by category (Find A Lawyer, Legal Advice, IPC Section lookup)
• Registration (additional-registration.html): User signup with location details (city/state/country), gender, DOB, and credentials
• Navigation: Lawyer Login/User Login links for authentication

Example workflow:

1. User visits homepage
2. Browses "Find A Lawyer" or "Legal Advice"
3. Clicks "Talk to a lawyer" CTA
4. Registers via registration form
5. Backend API authenticates via Sanctum

Features

• Lawyer search and discovery
• User/Lawyer registration system
• Location-based filtering (city, state, country)
• Bar council integration (via Bar_Council model)
• Sanctum API authentication
• Responsive Bootstrap UI
• RESTful API endpoints (/api/user with auth middleware)

Roadmap

• Implement lawyer profile pages
• Add consultation booking system
• Payment gateway integration
• Search and filter functionality
• Admin dashboard for bar council verification
• Mobile app development
• Real-time chat/video consultation
• Multi-language support

Contributing

Contributions are welcome!

1. Fork the Project
2. Create your Feature Branch (git checkout -b feature/AmazingFeature)
3. Commit your Changes (git commit -m 'Add some AmazingFeature')
4. Push to the Branch (git push origin feature/AmazingFeature)
5. Open a Pull Request

License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for more information.

Contact

Tuman Sutradhar

• GitHub: @tumansutradhar
• Email: connect.tuman@gmail.com
• LinkedIn: Tuman Sutradhar

Project Link: https://github.com/tumansutradhar/hackforge-srijan

Acknowledgments

• Laravel framework and documentation
• Bootstrap for responsive components
• Sanctum authentication library
• India's legal community for inspiration