ClearPath

Find out if your record can be cleared. Answer a few plain-language questions, get a state-specific starting-point read, and connect with legal help that can confirm your options.

ClearPath is a 24-hour hackathon project that helps people understand whether they may qualify for record relief (expungement, sealing, set-aside, etc.) in their state, and routes them to free or low-cost legal help to confirm and file.

Built for the Black Tech Community track. Built during the hackathon window — see commit history for the trail.

Why this exists

Research from Stanford Law's Paper Prisons Initiative shows fewer than 10% of people eligible for petition-based record relief actually receive it — the "second chance gap." The information exists (state statutes, the Restoration of Rights Project), but it's scattered, written for lawyers, and not actionable. ClearPath compresses the question "do I qualify?" from "talk to an attorney" into a 5-question conversation, then hands you off to people who can actually file.

This is a connector tool, not legal advice.

How it works

1. Pick your state on the US map (or use the dropdown — DC, federal, and small states).
2. Answer a structured intake — conviction or non-conviction, offense class, sentence completion, rough timeline. The chat asks one question at a time, adapted to the rules of your state.
3. Get a verdict card — Likely qualifies / Likely does not qualify / Unclear, with a confidence line, plain-language reasoning, and references back to the state profile.
4. Get connected to legal help — curated free legal aid orgs (CA, NY, GA), low-cost options (UT/PA/AZ via Rasa Legal), and a national fallback (NRRC Find a Lawyer) for everywhere else.

Architecture

• Next.js 16 (App Router) + React 19 + Tailwind v4 + TypeScript
• Vercel AI SDK v6 + Anthropic Claude Sonnet 4.6 — single-call streamText with a lookup_legal_aid tool, no RAG (the corpus is small enough to fit in-context per state)
• D3 + us-atlas TopoJSON for the choropleth map
• streamdown for streaming markdown rendering
• All data is committed JSON — no database, no auth in v1

Data sources & attribution

Eligibility data is adapted from the Restoration of Rights Project (RRP), a project of the Collateral Consequences Resource Center, with attribution per their republishing terms.

Population statistics are sourced from the Paper Prisons Initiative and Clean Slate Initiative research.

The legal aid universal fallback links to the National Reentry Resource Center Clean Slate Clearinghouse, a national clearinghouse covering all 50 states + territories.

Local dev

cp .env.example .env.local           # then add your ANTHROPIC_API_KEY
npm install
npm run dev                          # http://localhost:3000

To re-scrape the CCRC data (data/states.json):

node scripts/scrape.mjs

Repo layout

data/
  states.json          # 52 entries (50 states + DC + Federal), scraped from CCRC/RRP
  legal_aid.json       # Curated orgs for CA/NY/GA + Rasa for UT/PA/AZ + universal NRRC fallback
  raw/index.html       # raw CCRC HTML snapshot for provenance
scripts/
  scrape.mjs           # cheerio-based scraper for CCRC/RRP 50-state page
src/
  app/
    page.tsx           # Landing: hero + national stat + D3 map + dropdown
    state/[code]/      # Per-state chat page (SSG'd for all 52 entries)
    api/chat/route.ts  # streamText endpoint
  components/
    USMap.tsx          # D3 choropleth
    StateChat.tsx      # useChat client component
    ResourceCard.tsx   # legal aid result card
    Legend.tsx, StateSelect.tsx, Footer.tsx
  lib/
    states.ts          # typed access to states.json + FIPS map
    legal-aid.ts       # typed access to legal_aid.json + lookup
    system-prompt.ts   # per-state system prompt builder
SPEC.md                # product + architecture spec

Disclaimer

ClearPath is a starting-point eligibility guide, not legal advice. Eligibility data may be out of date relative to current state law. An attorney needs to confirm any read and file any petition.