Certain types of businesses are renowned for their conservatism and legal practices fit the bill perfectly. Legal workers all but epitomize conservatism, but they too cannot go untouched in the face of emerging technology such as Artificial Intelligence.
Artificial intelligence and automation are already involved in a remarkably large number of decisions by public authorities, from security to criminal justice. With AI progressing and other technologies entering the scene (such as facial recognition), that’s bound to accelerate. Here, we look at some of the ways in which technological advances have impacted the way law is practiced and examine possible advances that may be adopted in the near future.
Although it was certainly possible to talk to a lawyer using remote platforms in the past, the recent requirement to maintain social distancing has led to an uptick in remote consultations. While some of us may miss face-to-face meetings with legal experts, there’s no denying that it’s convenient to simply pick up the phone or log in to a chat platform when we need to consult a lawyer.
This has already become a common practice in many parts of the world. In the US, companies from Phoenix to New York are offering this service, and many are even willing to conduct initial case review remote consultations for free. If they do not believe it possible to make a strong case in your favor, that’s where it ends. If they believe they can assist, paid services commence.
Telecommuting is a logical next step. If lawyers needn’t meet clients at their offices, there’s no reason why they shouldn’t work from home. We’ve already moved half of our life on Zoom, and while things will hopefully return to normal not too long from now, this pandemic experience won’t leave us unchanged. We’ve learned that basic technologies suffice for internal communication, and lawyers and their teams are no exception.
Those of us who have dealt with lawyers at their offices may well remember the bulging files that their offices seemed to be packed with. There was paper, paper, and still more paper. Just finding relevant documents, sifting through external documents related to cases, and seeking evidence, was a massive, time-consuming task. These days, most documents are digitized, and advanced software can do the job for them. This cuts the costs the client must cover, and ensures that nothing is missed. It’s simply a matter of entering specific keywords and allowing the software to do the rest.
But even this is getting an upgrade.
When you’re looking through millions and millions of pages of legalese, a simple search algorithm might not be up to the task of pulling out everything you want.
AI can help legal workers sort out what’s potentially useful and what’s not, sorting things based on preference in smarter ways.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning enable a variety of advances and possible future changes in the way law is practiced. Already, IBM’s “Watson” is able to understand legal terms and can look up case law precedents and relevant statutes.
Contract reviewing software is already a reality. Whereas reviewing contracts was once a painstaking process that could only be undertaken by human beings, it can now be automated – at least, up to a point.
Further advances are expected, and we can expect even greater efficiency in the future. However, we should also pay attention to the inherent biases in AI and ensure that they don’t creep into the courtroom.
Although we do not yet do all our legal business with robots, we may soon be doing a large part of it with intelligent machines. Already, certain apps allow users to ask simple legal questions and receive accurate responses.
This technology is still in its infancy, and chatbots can only handle simple queries, referring more difficult ones to live law experts — but this is more than enough in most cases. Most of the time, clients have simple, classifiable queries, and chatbots can save a lot of time and money.
Furthermore, it’s only a matter of time before chatbots learn to handle increasingly complex matters. Although human lawyers will have the edge in non-standard matters for the foreseeable future, chatbots will ease more and more of the workload of human workers. For now, it’s the simple matters that allow chatbots to talk sense, while chatbot responses to complex questions can, occasionally, be hilarious!
The time spent by highly qualified individuals doesn’t come cheap, but technology is already reducing the time needed to perform routine tasks, and lawyers are able to pass on the savings to their clients.
As technology applicable to the legal field continues to develop, professional legal help will become ever more accessible to ordinary people. Perhaps, in addition to making it cheaper, technology might also make the legal profession more… just. Too often people don’t get adequate legal advice because they can’t afford it, and that might change in the not too distant future. True “Justice for All,” as opposed to justice to those who can afford the best lawyers, might be coming soon.
This content was originally published here.