We are living in a digital age where Artificial Intelligence (AI) emerges as the most hyped among all currently. AI creates a vibe that it is human parallel intelligence although it is not in fact. The OECD defines AI as a machine-based system which has limited autonomy to make some decisions. It can be termed as complementary to human intelligence as it is made from natural resources with human intervention.
The legal
industry has also become accustomed to the recent trend of AI-powered
technological tools to expedite its services. However, applications of AI tech
tools are quite uncommon in the legal profession in Bangladesh yet albeit it
become popular in the US, the UK, Canada, Europe, Australia, China, and many
other jurisdictions to do a range of routine legal works like data mining from
large volume of document, contract review, pleadings writing, predicting timeline
and outcome of lawsuits, pattern analysis, case management, law firm
management, evidence analysis, document analysis, replying clients’ query
through preprogrammed chatbot, triaging and allocation of matters, legal research, due diligence, risk
assessment and even for adjudicating cases through automatic
decision-making process. Consequently, it reduces the workloads, cost, and time
of both the legal professionals and litigants as the technology-based tools can
work promptly and tirelessly which also reduces the possibility of human error.
Nonetheless, digitalization
of the legal sector is still an ambitious aspiration in Bangladesh whereas the
government was successful to popularize the theme of ‘Digital Bangladesh’ and
now has a vision to make ‘Smart Bangladesh’ by 2041. The whole judiciary is
still operating in manual systems while it needs immediate adoption of useful
modern technologies. It should transform the traditional approaches into
digital not only to cope with the vision of the government but also to
deliver a better service to the nation. Basic digitalization of legal services
like e-case filing,
e-track allocation, e-discovery, electronic case management, etc is not yet
largely introduced in our court systems. Even elementary legal research like
searching case laws from leading law reports electronically is not well
organized and widely accessible in the country. Inauguration of effective tech
tools in case filing, hearing, serial maintaining etc can reduce corruption and
enhance accountability and transparency in the judiciary.
Although there are projects going on to deploy the latest
technology-based solutions in the court processes in Bangladesh, still those
are not fully implemented or are unsuccessful to address the issue. Nonetheless,
there are some behavioural and practical barriers behind the non-digitalization of
the legal industry in the country as well whereas the earlier Chief Justice faced
protest from a group of lawyers while tried to convert the paper-based cause
list into fully online for the Supreme Court case hearing.
It is
undeniable that there is a visible gap between modern technologies and the
understanding among legal professionals (i.e judges, lawyers, court
administrators, and staff) about how these tools work and how they can
impact the fundamental principles of justice including transparency, access to justice,
accountability and equality before the law, the openness of justice, procedural
fairness, and efficiency. As a result, the stakeholders of the judiciary require comprehensive
knowledge and training to deal with both the pros and cons of new technologies
in their professional lives.
The
subsequent couple of paragraphs of this article are going to exemplify various
uses of tech tools currently in legal practice globally to make their
profession less laborious although all of them get criticism from legal
scholars simultaneously.
Legal professionals
regularly review piles of files that waste a lot of time to find appropriate
things. Finding necessary information in time is a challenge in the present
system existed in Bangladesh for both lawyers and judges and it will be
obviously chaotic when everything is preserved in paper-based files. E-discovery can be a solution through AI-driven tools to get
instant information in seconds. E-discovery in
law is the method of collecting, storing, reviewing, and exchanging information
related to a case in an electronic format instead of keeping everything in the paper file. Moreover, with the aid of AI, it is possible to use filters
and specific parameters, such as geographic locations or dates, when searching
for data via AI-driven tools.
Additionally, AI
algorithms can perform thorough searches and scans of databases of statutes,
regulations, jurisdictions, case laws, and more what were done by junior
lawyers earlier. AI software is also used to generate templates to automate the
process of case record creation. In this process, filling in the details without
the need to write everything from scratch can produce invoices, motions,
agreements, pleading, bills, etc that enable legal practitioners to craft
documents that are aligned with the data-driven insights. Moreover, AI can
analyse previous landmark decisions rapidly to identify patterns in judgments, which can aid in projecting potential
outcomes of similar cases. This prediction can debatably be advantageous in framing
a legal strategy and settlement negotiations, offering lawyers and litigants
valuable insights into the feasible direction a case may take.
However, there is a tension between the
usefulness and risks of using tech tools including AI, Machine Learning,
Natural Language Processing devices in the justice sector as they have inherent
dangers in it too such as discrimination in the algorithm, bias and fairness
concern, data protection, security of confidential legal data and privacy
apprehension, compliance with the complexity of legal reasoning, expensive,
insufficient access to internet, possibility to assist litigants by non-lawyers etc. On top of that, overdependence on
technology may lead to injustice and diminish human intelligence and efficiency
gradually. Therefore, this is high time to assess the prospects and threats
that AI techniques present to the legal industry extensively.
Though legal
professionals are slowly coping with the trend of technology, it is presumed
that the use of AI empowered tools will be increased in the coming days in the
judiciary. It is also questionably
anticipated that full-fledged use of technology in the legal industry will
alter the traditional atmosphere of the judiciary and encourage litigants to
seek redress from court more conveniently. It will also give them comfort to
file and conduct cases from convenient places as it will not always necessarily
require physical attendance of them. However, we must
apply tech tools in the legal practice with high caution and robust responsibly
to maintain the standard of the profession and uphold the fundamental
principles of justice.
Published in the Daily Sun as Op-ed on 21 May 2024 on page 7.
Published in the Daily New Age as Lead Op-ed on 28 May 2024 on page 8.
Published in the Daily Sangbad as Lead Sub-editorial on 4 July 2024 on page 6.
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