Law In The Age Of Artificial Intelligence

Arindam Das Apr 13, 2019

A disruptive technology like Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing the game for many industries including the legal field. Artificial Intelligence technology is revolutionising the way of work for many. Lately, the discussions on the potential use of Artificial Intelligence and the chances of Law and AI working hand in hand have grown. In the Indian Legal context, the entire process is manual, and the old age traditional lawyers in the profession are disinclined towards the concept of Artificial Intelligence in law.

However, the new age and Tech-savvy lawyers are paying more attention to Artificial Intelligence expertise and legal tools that may filter and structure the legal processes and documentations coherently. The legal domain is highly complex in nature and encompasses E-commerce, AI reasoning, data extraction, processing and retrieval, decision-making, learning and demonstration. Ample research reveals that the traditional tools that currently exist in the industry are not capable of coping up with the complex nature of the current legal structure.

It is essential to understand the scope of Artificial Intelligence. Legal firms that deal with Artificial Intelligence are looking for ways to evolve technology to provide better speed and precision in the Law industry. Multiple AI softwares for the legal sector is under development to replace the tedious documentation jobs of the lawyers so that the legal workforce may be utilized more positively for better things. In India, Artificial Intelligence is also looking for ways to support clients and provide speedy service to them.

Virtually, it is unlikely for a robot to play a lawyer’s role in the courtroom. But, documents can be created and drafted by the Artificially Intelligent robots. This reduces the clerical roles of the lawyers to a large extent. In the near future, lawyers might have to only appear and argue in front of the judges. A combination of technological advancements and market forces may force law firms to step into Artificial Intelligence.

Due to the growing interest in Artificial Intelligence and gradual transformation in the legal industry, the expenses and demands for paralegal and law researchers have gone down. Various legal documents like legal notices, wills and contracts can be drafted with the help of tools and legal softwares that have been developed through artificial intelligence. It helps the clients to save time that is usually invested in drafting simple contracts. Also, it allows lawyers to focus on litigation work and saves time spent on legal research and draft work.

There are multiple ways in which artificial intelligence is applied in the domain of law globally. In India, the recognition for the scope of Artificial Intelligence is still in its early stages. Following are the ways Artificial Intelligence may be advantageous for law firms and lawyers:

Carrying out research-based activities on legal aspects (data gathering and analysis)
Due to analytics, additional insights and shortcuts will be helpful
Drafting automatized contracts, petitions etc. and facilitating legal-writing

The faith that artificial intelligence has a good future for lawyers is growing. With a combination of Artificial Intelligence, the legal domain will experience a great spike in the growth rate in the near future. Following are the six major areas in which Artificial Intelligence is beneficial in law:

Prediction Technology: An Artificially Intelligent legal software that can predict the likely outcome of a case which will be presented in the court of law.

Automation of Documents: The required documents that are to be incorporated in the legal document can be ready within minutes just by filling in information.

Due Diligence: Artificially Intelligent legal software is beneficial and time efficient. It is helpful while reviewing a contract, conducting legal research etc.

Legal Analytics: Due to Artificial Intelligence, lawyers can use precedent law in their present cases. The technology also provides data points from past cases and judgements.

E-Billing: Artificially Intelligent legal software can prepare invoices according to the work that has been done. It, also, makes accurate adjustments in the lawyer’s work.

Intellectual Property: The tools of Artificial Intelligence provide insights into the portfolios of Intellectual Property.

“AI Ross” of IBM administers many legal practices globally. The software has been employed to manage contracts and legal subjects on a permanent basis by various law firms. The Artificially Intelligent software is based on another AI software, “Watson”, which was also created by IBM. AI Watson observes Human interactions, perceptions and experiences to acquire knowledge and information. Algorithms have been fed to the software to allow it to cognitively interact with Humans.

India’s take on AI, however, is still in its infancy stage. There is a lot of scope for development for the application of Artificial Intelligence in the Indian Legal context. To ease the functioning of law, many private, as well as government-run law firms are researching and developing new techniques. The future of lawyers with training in AI and desire to adapt to the evolving technologies seem bright.