Lawyers need to come out of their cocoons and learn about the new technology of artificial intelligence that can disrupt their profession; from predicting case judgment based on past data to dispute resolution.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a term that most lawyers in India are not that familiar with. This evolving computer technology of the future will eventually have a major impact on the way the world functions, and the profession of law will also see a disruptive change. However, before we proceed further on this treatise on AI and law, we must formally define the term.
Artificial Intelligence is a way of making a computer, a computer-controlled robot, or software think intelligently, in a manner similar to the way an intelligent human thinks.
AI is rapidly infiltrating the practice of law and you may be wondering about what AI is out there or on the way and how you use them. We can say that AI, in legal practice, is in its infancy. It will, however, bring radical technology-based disruption to the practice of law.
Based on our assessment and offerings in the legal field, some major categories that the application of AI will disrupt and benefit in the legal sphere are as follows:
Dispute Resolution-
A number of online dispute resolution tools have or are being developed to completely circumvent the judicial process and has been used to settle disputes online using AI. For example: Yessettle, Sama, presolv360 et al, an online dispute resolution tools.
Due diligence –
Helping lawyers perform research. Litigants perform due diligence with the help of AI tools to uncover background information such as search reports.
Prediction technology –
Companies lose crores of rupees in litigation every year. Quite often, they are taken by surprise when the court order comes in and are helpless in response. An AI software generates results that forecast litigation outcomes and one of the most significant disruptions in using predictive analytics to analyse the extensive volume of data and case law research. Lawyers can use data points from past case law, win/loss rates and a judge’s history to be used in trends and patterns in legal outcomes.
Document automation –
It is robotics drafting and using document automation, lawyers can reduce the errors, costs and overall inefficiencies associated with traditional drafting methods. Documents’ can be created in minutes instead of days. Companies including Law firms use software templates to create filled out documents based on data input.
Intellectual property –
AI tools guide lawyers in analysing large Intellectual Property (IP) portfolios and drawing insights from the content. One of India’s top IP lawyer, Salman Waris LLM (UK), heads the TMT and IP practice groups at TechLegis says, “AI systems will play an increasingly important role in IP administration in the future.”There is clearly a lot of interest in AI among IP offices, which see it as an opportunity to deal with volume, quality and cost. This will be a major focus.
Judicial decision by litigation analysis –
Opinions and orders of courts and other valuable information is generally fully available. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to search all of that data and be able to predict the outcome of litigation? Well, no surprise, AI is already providing a solution here as well. It will soon be possible to compare the facts of your case to other cases already decided by a court.
For example, the Wisconsin Supreme Court recently upheld the use of algorithms in criminal sentencing decisions in a recent case titled State v. Loomis, 881 N.W.2d 749 (Wis.2016).
Time savings and drop in litigation –
AI has massive scope in reduction of litigation process in succession cases and promises tremendous cost savings and productivity enhancements for lawyers as well as litigants.
For instance, JP Morgan has found a new way to save on legal spending and announced that it is using software called “COIN”-short for Contract Intelligence that can also dramatically reduce the amount of time it takes to review legal documents; what had taken legal aides 360,000 man hours in the past now takes seconds when done by AI.
Conclusion:
The use of AI in law will be an evolution, not a revolution. However, indisputably, AI is already transforming virtually every business and activity that advocates deal with. The pace of change is different in different spheres of activity, but the legal profession will not be spared from this disruptive change.
