As technological advancements continue to change the modern legal landscape, the role of legal professionals is also evolving. Today, the automation of various legal processes are prompting child custody attorneys, legal secretaries, paralegals, and other legal professionals to be more proficient. As a result, law technology is an important aspect in the legal field, influencing everything from corporate practice and law firm to the courtroom operations.
Here’s how technology is impacting the legal industry today:
1. Low-Value Legal Work Automation
For most lawyers, there’s nothing more boring than spending a whole day at the office surrounded by heaps of mindless paperwork. Fortunately, technology is providing a solution for that by automating low-value and repetitive legal work. For instance, various legal firms are testing automated NDAs.
Automation of low-value legal tasks means the competition for legal jobs will be tougher than ever. That’s largely because there will be no need for a person to do basic legal jobs. Nonetheless, there are still opportunities in the automation process as someone will need to set up everything.
2. Electronic Billing And Case Management
In law firms, traditional paper invoices are slowly becoming a thing of the past, thanks to electronic billing. Technology is also changing how documents get handled through electronic case management. That not only makes data entry easier but also eliminates errors, streamlines legal work and enables more detailed analysis.
3. Technology in the Courtroom
In the courtroom, electronic filing has become the norm in state and federal courts. Today, the legal system operates on web-based databases to allow the counsel to access important court documents remotely.
Today, a growing number of courtrooms have the whistles and bells of the electronic age. You can also note built-in equipment and monitors to support trial presentation software and other technologies in the courtroom.
4. Flexibility in Work
Technology’s main advantage in the legal field is the work-flexibility it delivers. A lot of legal research happens online, and hence it can be done remotely from anywhere in the world. Additionally, it promises to enhance work-life balance in an industry that has been known to struggle with the issue for a long time.
New technologies created by programmers and coders are making things more accessible and hence creating flexibility. As such, lawyers and other legal professionals can do everything remotely including writing summons and other documents. However, some experts doubt whether having 24/7 access is a good thing, especially when a person is obsessed with work.
5. Data Mining in Law
Applying data mining in law could offer a lot of invaluable insights for legal professionals. As such, you can expect some things to change, including how judges treat some types of plaintiffs and even knowing where to find the evidence to settle a case.
While the possibilities are endless, data mining brings up interesting concerns over privacy. As such, whether it’s in the interest of fairness, certain judges will not be comfortable with the use of data mining in certain cases.
6. Artificial Intelligence in Legal Decision Making
In areas with a well-defined law and with facts that are often uncontested, it’s possible to have a software adjudicate some mundane cases. For instance, in situations where people want to contest fines, the software can easily do the job since the facts are clear and the law is pretty straightforward. The stakes are also low, and hence the level of risk is minimal.
In instances where the law can be messy, it can be a bit difficult to have an artificial intelligence adjudicate over a case. That’s why people choose to go to court since the law is not clear, and the stakes might be high. It’s also hard to imagine people getting behind the idea of trusting an artificial intelligence with criminal proceedings. Nonetheless, AI can be very effective in reducing the workload in courts by solving all the low-value cases piling up daily.
7. Probate: Digital Legacies
Though Probate law once dealt with entities like physical assets, land, and possessions, the creation of digital properties has raised concerns over who owns the products after the owner’s death. As such, people are reconsidering the way they buy music, films, and books having in mind that these assets can’t be inherited after the owner’s death. That means you can’t include your online music library in your will.
Bottom Line
Though the conservative legal industry is yet to embrace technology fully, it has infiltrated every aspect of the practice of law. And though a court packed with artificial lawyers and judges may not be anywhere in our future, there are other ways that technology is significantly curving the law and legal profession. Some of these advancements make legal practitioners efficient and highly productive, while others make the legal industry to be more competitive than ever.
