This article was written by Bhavana Kakad pursuing Diploma in Advanced Contract Drafting, Negotiation and Dispute Resolution and edited by Koushik Chittella.
This article has been published by Sneha Mahawar.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Today’s youth are very familiar with the term artificial intelligence, i.e., AI. In this generation, where everything is tech-driven, AI has also played an important role in the legal field. AI has become an integral part of almost every industry, and the legal field is no exception to this. AI basically means performing tasks that require intelligence; it includes:
- Maps and Navigation
- Facial detection
- Chatbots
- E-payments
- Social media, etc.
Large Language Models (LLM)
Large Language Models are basically deep learning methods that recognise, summarise, translate, and generate great content using large datasets. AIs that depict human intelligence are to be known as LLMs. They help in data analysis, learn patterns, and connect through words and phrases using statistical models. An example of LLM can be customer service automation (CSA).
LLM is simply a machine learning model that performs various natural language processing (NLP) tasks, such as answering questions in a conversation.
How can lawyers use AI
AI can reduce work time and build accuracy in various areas, including legal documentation, legal advice, and analysis. It helps lawyers reduce paperwork. It can also help in streamlining and accelerating aspects of e-discovery document review and can be applied to cases ranging from large to small. The lawyers can actually get things done through AI, which is really monotonous in nature.
With the help of AI technology, lawyers can complete administrative tasks, such as filing and maintaining legal documents. E-Discovery finds and reviews electronically stored information (ESI).
Tasks with the help of AI
The following are the types of tasks that can be done with the help of AI:
- Repetitive tasks: The work related to meetings, preparing evidence, and negotiating, which are more human-centric and time-consuming, can be done through AI.
- Administrative tasks: Time-consuming tasks can be done through AI, such as arranging meetings and appointments, which can be tedious, and lawyers can focus more on important tasks.
- Contract Review (Document Review): Streamlining documents, reviewing contracts, and identifying common clauses become easier.
- Create Documents: Proceedings require a lot of clerical work where AI can be really beneficial, such as in creating pleadings and even some applications.
- Legal Research: AI can be used for legal research when we have to go through thousands of documents, which can be very time-consuming. AI can do the same task within a few minutes and obtain accurate and relevant information.
- Document Count: AI drastically reduces the document count.
AI for legal document review has the capacity to connect dots and find correlations between them; it leaves no stone unturned. AI sometimes identifies the most crucial fact that goes unnoticed by humans.
Strengthen productivity and reliability with AI technology.
AI for law professionals is for strengthening the productivity and reliability of the tasks done through AI rather than just computerised tasks. Developed AI tools can not only make the best decision but also recognise possible legal risks and develop effective strategies for their clients.
One of the primary reasons why people have adapted to AI in the law sector is due to its capability to analyse and process large amounts of data in the shortest time and with the highest accuracy. AI-mechanised platforms can find the law officer’s most relevant case laws and statutes through vast data to make better-informed decisions.
AI in document review
Human-centred AI for e-discovery workflows helps law firms and in-house counsel get insights into document review. AI legal document review uses AI technology for analysing and reviewing legal aspects of documents in a more inch-perfect and error-free manner. This sort of technology originated to aid the legal profession with tasks such as reviewing contracts, performing due diligence, conducting legal research, and staying updated with the latest amendments and developments in the legal field. This tool analyses new cases, statutes, rules, and regulations, ensuring that lawyers have access to the most recent information available.
This actually saves professionals a vast amount of time, allowing them to concentrate more on judicious pieces of work. Through AI, the documentation review process and its quality are greatly improved. It does so by analysing past documents and adapting their structure, language, and content. They can also help make drafts that are more proficient and legally sound.
Email Threading: Email threading is an AI tool that identifies and organises all emails in a single conversation for reviewing purposes. By doing this, it is easy to review and improves speed and consistency across data. They can connect dots on long conversation stings.
AI for legal research
Legal research involves the process of researching relevant legal information that supports legal arguments and decision-making. It was a standard practice before AI that lawyers would do legal research manually, which is eventually time-consuming and could also lead to probable errors. Hence, the use of AI, machine learning, and natural language processing has built up a strong foundation for legal research and improved efficiency and accuracy for results. AI tools such as research databases, chatbots, and document review software can very well resolve our queries. There are various AI applications for legal research; some of them are:
- Due Diligence for Legal Research: For legal research, accurate facts and figures are needed, which are quite impossible for a human-centred mind, but AI machine learning technology has streamlined various aspects of it by improving accuracy. Due to this, lawyers are able to take proper action by assessing situations.
- Kira System: Kira System was established by Noah Waisberg, who is an M&A lawyer. This system offers accurate information for due diligence in contract reviews. The advanced algorithms to search for and extract relevant information can also help in document reviews. This accelerates the process up to 90% for experienced users and 40% for new users.
- Leverton: This is used for data extraction and document management, which can be used by lawyers for the research process. It can read contracts in various different languages by extracting vital information from them.
- eBravia: This tool was established to extract vital textual data from contracts and other documents. This copied text can be converted into searchable text. The information can be extracted and summarised into comprehensive text that is downloaded and again used for research purposes.
- JP Morgan: This was developed by in-house legal technology tools; this tool extracts information from commercial credit agreements and contracts in a matter of seconds, which is mostly used by bank lawyers for their research analysis.
- Thoughtriver: This focuses on risk management by maintaining contract reviews, portfolio assessments, etc. Users can explore content extracts and gain insights from them.
- Ross Intelligence: This AI tool supports lawyers in their legal research by offering natural language; it allows lawyers to ask any questions and receive vital relevant information, which includes:
- Case laws
- Relevant information
- Headings
- Secondary source
The algorithms analyse large amounts of data, trying to improve the responses. They go through millions of documents to provide us with accurate, informed answers.
- Casetext: This AI tool helps analyse opposite counsel’s arguments by finding previously used legal opinions. Lawyers can identify cases that have been negatively treated as unreliable.
- DoNotPay: This is also known as the ‘world’s first robot lawyer’. This AI tool helps guide through legal issues, e.g., filing for small causes in court, making it more accessible for people who cannot afford lawyers.
- LawGeex: This tool employs machine learning, text analytics, and statistical benchmarks to review documents that are based upon predefined policies. If the document fails to meet standards and policies, then it suggests edits.
- Legal Robot: This AI tool converts legal content into numeric form. It helps raise issues within the document.
Hon’ble Supreme Court on using AI tools
Since 2021, the Hon’ble Supreme Court has been using an AI tool designed for processing information and making it available to judges for reviewing decisions. It does not participate in the decision-making process.
The other tool used by the Supreme Court is SUVAS, i.e., Supreme Court Vidhik Anuvaad Software, which is used for translating legal papers from English into any regional language and vice versa.
Jaswinder Singh vs. State of Punjab and Anr. (2022)
In this case, the Punjab and Haryana High Court rejected a bail petition due to allegations from the prosecution that the petitioner was involved in a brutal fatal assault. The presiding judge requested input from ChatGPT, which is an AI-powered tool. This tool does not express an opinion on a case’s matter, and the trial court is not considering these comments. ChatGPT does not give opinions; it just gives information on the topic asked. The AI tools cannot think like humans; they are more neutral in nature. They also do not confer any decisions; it is just a model that provides us with answers to the questions asked.
Suggestions
AI in the legal field can be used for document analysis, legal research, and document review, which has improved efficiency and accuracy. Implementation of natural language processing, i.e., NLP, has enhanced legal information useful for law professionals to access relevant case laws, statutes, rules, and regulations. It can also predict case outcomes based on historical data, helping lawyers make more informed decisions. Therefore, it is suggested that there must be an integration of AI into the legal field.
Conclusion
Artificial intelligence is transforming the legal field with respect to legal research and document review by enhancing research, scanning, and pre-programmed tasks, which support lawyers. But AI cannot think smart like humans and cannot have the expertise and judgement of law professionals, but it can improve the efficiency and accuracy of the data provided.
We should embrace these technological advancements, as they have really made our tedious work easy, and adapt to the changing landscape of the legal industry. AI continues to evolve, and thoughtful consideration can be made.
References
- The-Role-of-AI-Technology-for-Legal-Research-and-Decision-Making.pdf (researchgate.net)
- https://www.casepoint.com/resources/spotlight/leveraging-ai-document-review-law-firms/
- https://resource.revealdata.com/en/blog/artificial-intelligence-in-legal-document-review
- https://www.barandbench.com/columns/artificial-intelligence-in-context-of-legal-profession-and-indian-judicial-system#:~:text=Currently%2C%20there%20are%20no%20specific,a%20policy%20framework%20for%20AI.
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