NC A&T student demos Hey Justice app to supporters

Danielle Bunker used a family-and-friends demo at North Carolina A&T State University to show how Hey Justice is moving from campus concept to a product aimed at real legal users in Guilford County and beyond.

Bunker, a political science junior at NC A&T, began developing the app in July 2025 after identifying a legal access gap that affects communities nationwide. The platform is designed to use advanced artificial intelligence to simplify legal documents, track court dates and share real-time location during encounters with law enforcement. It also translates legal documents into Standard American English, Spanish and Ebonics, a feature built to make the system more usable for people who may struggle with dense legal language.

The May 19 demo gave family, friends and supporters an early look at the app’s progress. Bunker said the team plans to test Hey Justice with five pilot organizations, including three law firms, before a market launch. She also said the team hopes to pilot with Legal Aid of North Carolina and women’s domestic violence shelters, signaling that the app is being aimed at people who may need fast, practical help navigating the justice system rather than a classroom project with no path to users.

Hey Justice is co-founded with Bunker’s older brother, David Bunker, whose cybersecurity and information-technology background is being used to strengthen protections for personal information and legal documents. The team also includes two software developers and a social media specialist. With guidance from NC A&T’s Center of Excellence in Entrepreneurship and Innovation, the group has filed copyright and trademark applications, another sign that the project is being treated as a commercial venture instead of a one-off student exercise.

The app has also gained outside validation. In November 2025, Hey Justice won a $20,000 Black Ambition Prize after being selected from more than 2,500 applicants and 27 finalists. FOX8 later reported that the team also received $2,500 from Tech on the Yard. For NC A&T, the project adds to a growing body of student work that is beginning to look less like a class assignment and more like a pipeline for commercializable products with civic value.