Like any other business, the legal industry also
adopts technological advancement like legal analytics which includes modern
tech tools e.g Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning, natural language
processing, pattern matching technology etc. to facilitate the process of
getting justice. Albeit historically, law and technology barely collaborated
with each other to abolish the misery of litigants. There was a lack of
innovation suits with the industry’s demand. It is either because of the incomputable
nature of law or lack of in-depth research to make technology compatible with the
need of legal services. The trend has been changed especially during the time
of COVID19 when intervention of technology in judicial processes got wider
acceptance all over the planet.
However, the legal industry cannot resist transforming
itself with the massive wave of present AI fashioned legal analytics technologies
and rapidly evolving digital society. Widespread use in almost every sector coupled
with speedy growth of AI creates abundant opportunities for the justice system
across the globe. This latest scientific innovation can bring changes to alter
the landscape of traditional legal profession by improving existing approaches
to fundamental principles of justice like access to justice, transparency,
accountability, fairness and so forth.
Legal analytics denotes the use of computational data analysis tools and
techniques to analyse data on the operation of the legal system or on the
operations of legal professionals and enterprises. Legal analytics consists of
many different approaches, for example some AI systems attempt to predict the
outcomes of lawsuit, identify the trend of judgments of a particular judge,
analyse evidence, mining data from large chunk of documents etc. A legal
analytics device is also competent to take the advisory roles by gathering evidence
or estimating recidivism rates based on readily available statistics that saves
huge amount of time and labour of judges. In addition, it produces accurate
data which if done manually is prone to error.
Today’s tech-savvy clients expect
demonstrable efficiency, quality, and better outcomes in their litigation. Therefore,
basic computational technologies along with legal analytics like AI powered
tools are making their way into the legal industry, from legal aid
organizations and courts to large law firms, corporate legal departments, and
governments as well. Frequent
use of these new devices reduces the workload of lawyers and courts, minimizes the
cost of litigants, and undoubtedly saves time of both which also opens a new
horizon for the judiciary to become people friendly. Therefore, legal analytics
tools become popular all over the world although it is mostly unknown in our
judicial system due to massive lack of digitalization.
Law chambers deploy legal analytics tools in their
daily functions such as legislation and case law analysis, case management,
automated contract review, pleadings and contract drafting to add greater value
for their clients. Apart from these, there are some access to justice tools which
even support non-lawyers in engaging with legal processes. Modern
computational technologies have potentials to automate the delivery of various
legal services to wide spectrum of litigants. For basic legal needs, access to
legal services might come in the form of smartphones or other devices that can
provide consumers with a catalogue of their legal rights and obligations, as
well as providing understandings and possible solutions to common daily life law
related complex problems.
The
installation of legal analytics tools in the legal industry presents several significant
challenges concerning legal profession. Among them, whether AI run robot is
going to replace human judges and lawyers in court in coming days is the most prominent.
It also changes the traditional thoughts, work process and enforcement of
existing law and regulation.
Nonetheless,
AI possesses inherent threats and potential risks in the legal industry too.
There is real danger of providing legal advice, support and guidance by a
non-lawyer taking aid from legal analytics tools which may affect the interest
and rights of the client. Lawyering is a highly technical, sophisticate and
regulated profession by professional body which needs to maintain certain standard
and expertise while dealing with a lawsuit in the court whereas the standard of
service will certainly not be maintained by non-lawyers that will ultimately
damage the rights of litigants. Lawyers have a duty to provide competent
representation and clear information to their client which cannot be monitored
in this process. Profiling of judges by finding out the trends of judgment is
another substantial concern of critics which may create pressure upon the
judges to perform their duties fearlessly, thus it may convey negativity about
judges to the community.
Apart
from the above, incorporating legal analytics technologies into legal profession
creates issue relating to ethics and professional integrity, discrimination, bias,
data protection, privacy etc. AI tools are usually trained by human with
precedents. Consequently, AI is merely trained to think and act in accordance with
the previous decisions that may have bias and discriminatory elements in it,
which has potential risk of violating principles of fairness and equal
protection under the law. Additionally, AI often requires access to sensitive
legal data and documents. Ensuring proper data protection and preventing
unauthorized access is crucial to maintaining client confidentiality and
complying with privacy regulations.
The
complexity of cases, and of human nature, causes people to rely on lawyers and
judges to include more of an emotional, psychological level of demand. Further,
AI does not yet make good use of creative thinking, which is one of the major
criteria to be a good legal professional.
Weighing
the mentioned points, it is clear that new computational technologies could be
beneficial for the industry if we can ensure meticulous innovation and use of
it in the judiciary. The notion of rule of law, respect for human rights, non-discrimination,
democratic values along with robust ethical guideline and responsible use of
these tools must be included in driving force from problem definition, design,
data collection, and data cleaning, to training, deploying, monitoring, and
maintaining products, platforms, and systems.
There
is great impact in what legal analytics tools can and will do to support legal
professionals in their work but beside the AI hype, there is yet a necessity to
entirely alert why and how to use this technology and what are the integral dangers.
Published in the Law & Our Rights page of The Daily Star on 1 March 2024 at page 10.
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