Our Story

Sentia Legis was not conceived in a boardroom; it was born from necessity during a multi‑year VCAT proceeding.

A tool forged in the crucible of a real case

As a defendant in that proceeding, our founder had no choice but to defend his family’s interests. The process took an immense personal and financial toll as he, a technologist acting as a self‑represented party, spent many hours sifting through evidence and drafting submissions, all while managing a full‑time career and family.

That experience became the inspiration for Sentia Legis, a platform designed to provide the exact tools he wished he had. It is a system built by a user, for the user, with a deep and personal understanding of the problem we are solving.

Our name, our mission

Our name, Sentia Legis, tells two stories central to our mission: one about the very soul of the law, and one about the people who fought to make it just.

The first story: the spirit of the law

Since antiquity, a tension has existed between the “letter of the law” and the “spirit of the law.” Legis, Latin for “of the law,” is the letter, the complex statutes and rigid procedures that can be intimidating and inflexible. Sentia, from sentire “to feel, to perceive,” is the spirit, the human context, the intent, and the principle of fairness that the law is meant to serve. True justice can only be achieved when the spirit of the law is given a powerful voice.

The second story: the spirit of the people

This ideal was first championed by the Roman plebeians, the common citizens who staged history’s first great fight for legal equality, demanding a system that served everyone, not just the elite. Our name is a direct tribute to this movement, inspired by the gens Sentia, a notable plebeian family who embodied this historic struggle.

Today, that same spirit of determination lives on in the “missing middle”, the everyday citizens and small businesses who must navigate our complex legal system alone. Sentia Legis is our commitment to them: a tool built to master the law’s letter, to give voice to its spirit, and to empower the people for whom it was written.