This article is written by Sparsh Shukla, student of School of Law, Jagran Lakecity University.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Technology assures to provide simple and appropriate life to humans. We are entirely dependent on technology for everything, in this technology flooded world. Advancement in technology has been continuously at quick speed and non-stop. Every profession and business is staying up to date with rise in innovation. Although contrast other professions, the legal business to a definite amount is bit behind. Although various law colleges, lawyers, judges and paralegals i.e. the whole legal fraternity are getting involve with technology than ever before. But still, the question remains is to what level the legal profession is in speed with progresses in technology.
Coronavirus has carried the world to a stop yet with every one of the difficulties it brings, it has likewise given the legal business an uncommon chance to change and enhance the manner in which we have been practising and directing the matter of law.
From online courts been held to purely AI based research for a case, technology has truly took over almost every aspect of traditional law. New and thrilling technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, data analytics and predictive analytics have already started to interrupt the legal market.
The legal fraternity is in a place where lawyers and judges are all satisfied with their traditional methods and are opposed to get routine with innovation in law. Despite of the fact that the application of technology can give legal professions a new dimension towards working efficiently. It is assumed that Artificial Intelligence will maybe replace itself with labour and manpower resources because of which lawyers and judges are hesitant towards it. However, truth is the relevance of technology is to ease burden that human faces and converts vigorous work into simple work.
“Technology will not replace great teachers but technology in the hands of great teachers can be transformational” – George Couros
For the greater part of the most recent 50 years, Technology knew its place. Indeed, we as a whole invested a great deal of energy with it, yet even five years prior, not many individuals would genuinely guarantee that technology had assumed control over their lives. It’s totally different today. If handled with great precautions technology could be man’s new best friend.
With an estimated total population of 1.4 billion people, around 17 % of the world is Indian. That alone makes the legal tech scene an interesting one. There are almost 750 million internet users in the country, and the massive legal sector in the country gives it an enormous power that can contribute significantly to the overall growth of the legal tech industry.
The legal innovation has been being used for a long while on the lookout however its application had been in any case than what it is today. Since 2011, the application and usage of the legal innovation or legal technology has turned from the conventional agreement, to advance lawful professionals, law offices, singular legal counsellors and other lawful establishments.
During the course of the long term, the legal field has seen phenomenal changes. As in, before the legal technology of the 21st century, individuals were relied upon to visit a legal advisor at each step of a dispute. But since this turn of events, it has become gradually simple for the people to get resolve to their issues.
The legal industry as a whole is getting along with the technology, not only big corporate law firms but also the pillar of democracy that is judiciary is infusing justice with technology thus not only fasting the process of the cases but only providing the ease to the honourable Judges in deciding the cases.
Rise of technology in the judiciary
It took a pandemic for us to realise the potential and benefits of technology even in judiciary system. Technology has now entered in almost all industries and sectors but it is an area that is yet to be exploited in the Indian judiciary system, but the corona virus pandemic left us with no choice but to take aid of the technology for the functioning of judiciary system. Courts are human institutions and, in such institutes, where the work are majorly depended on human inputs like labour, mind, interpretation and judgement, this human element is often ignored and due to this there is not much of a direct involvement of technology here. Although the technology cannot perform the human element, but it can surely give support and make it more efficient and easier.
When it comes to on the whole technological advancement and inflation of the courtroom settings, the foremost question to ponder is whether or not the justice will be improved based on the usage of technology. Modern technology has helped a lot to improve the administration of justice, even helps in enhancement of justice and saves money and time. The Judiciary is the palisade against all the misuse of power on the part of the executive and also protect the native from Government anarchy. Judiciary is one of the most important tier in our constitution based on rule of law. Since time immemorial law and judiciary have played a vital role in Indian policy.
When the whole country was under lockdown so was the courts, but the country was at pause not the legal issues which the judicial system has to address, therefore there was no option but to use technology to take up the important and urgent cases. Online hearing of the cases took place with the help of video conferencing and other tools. This brought a push in the slow involvement of technology in the judicial system.
Access to equity is all around served by innovation as it permits more discourse between the residents and open establishment. In India we all are well aware about the difficulty faced by the Judiciary, Courts, and public seeking justice in terms of providing justice, expense, and delays in justice declaration. Amidst all this problems the technological advancement and enhancement in operational efficiency, accessibility, coordination, and speed which technology can bring would bestow notably towards the improvement of Indian judiciary system.
Efficient use of technology in the court
Recently, in 2019 the Supreme Court allowed live streaming of cases of national and constitutional importance. The judgement was passed by 3 judge bench of Deepak Mishra, A.M Khanwilkar and D.Y Chandrachud. The judgement said that the live streaming will be with the consent of the parties and the consent can be revoked anytime. It also allowed live streaming of oath ceremony and farewell speeches of judges.
This shows that the India judicial system was slowly moving towards technology but due to the corona virus pandemic it gain speed.
E-filing for the cases under Commercial Courts Act was made available from 1st March 2020. Court hearing were held though video conferences, urgent court orders has been realised through the medium of website.
The Indian judiciary consists of 15,000 courts in 2500 court complexes. Efforts for computerization is going on since 1990.Under the National E-governance plan, the computerization of courts have been made a Mission Mode Project (MMP) and it has been proposed to implement advance technology in 3 phases over a period of 5 years.There are lots of benefits with the technological advancement on the field of judiciary as the E-courts project will take proper care of the details and the results declaration of any particular case.
Earlier, the India judiciary system has been closely associated with the National Information Centre (NIC). All the high court were been computerized and interconnected by NCI’s satellite-based network. The network also connected all the high court with the Supreme court.
As this situation is going to be our new normal, people have to adjust accordingly. Legal Aid Clinic is also a part of Indian Judiciary, it also undergoes the syllabus of a law student. Legal Aid Clinic is studied to provide legal relief to the backward sections of our society. Keeping in mind the fact that now India is moving completely towards the virtual age, India’s 1st Virtual Aid Clinic is also established to maintain the proper judiciary and to keep a track on all the cases overall. Technological advancement has gone so far that now everything is possible.
Though correct use of technology the judiciary can be immensely improved. One of the major drawbacks of judiciary system is the huge time frame one case may take, that may stretch for years and the tone load of is the back lock of cases pending. Technology can help improve in this direction by providing pace in the proceedings.
Through life video conferencing statement of witnesses can be taken easy and quickly which can provide speed in the proceedings as well as ensures safety of the witnesses, similarly testimonies, statements of professionals and experts can be taken through live video conferencing from anywhere across the world. This can be done not only in the present time of pandemic but can also be continued later as well.
The Computer data base that is used to store the documentations of the cases can be improved as well and properly connected across all the courts from district courts to the Supreme court so that the cases can be easily transferred.
When all the data from all the cases will be accumulated in the computer data base an artificial technology can be developed that can cluster similar case together and assign a judge to each such cluster and can provide speed and ease in clearing the back lock of the pending cases. Many such AI or machine learning programs are there which can be modified and developed to make them useful in the judiciary system.
Advancement of technology can be a useful tool in the following areas
- RECORDING OF COURT PROCEEDINGS
Since long stenography is used to record the proceedings of the court.
Stenography needs special skilled stenographers who are trained in shorthand language which in rare cases is a source of minor errors too. If we replace stenography with audio system mechanism it will cut the cost of the stenographer and the process will be more effective and efficient. Digital audio recording may also help the judge to record and listen to whatever portion he may wants to listen, which will be a time saver too. The digital Audio recording can also be transcribed into a hard copy format.
With the use of such advanced technology the pace of case proceedings will increase rapidly. The quality will also enhance as it is far more accurate. Hence it will be both effective and efficient.
- CASE MANAGEMENT
Developing technology and portals will allow us to track the events and cases with a view to provide information to the decision maker on time. These things done by computers will considerably take less time than if the same were done manually. Production of form and any other repetitive process can be automated with the help of MIS (Management Information System).
- HELPS IN DECISION MAKING PROCESS
If the research is carried on by judges for the purpose of decision making then technique can be of a great help. Courts are sometimes giving inconsistent decisions. It is mainly due to the fact that certain law, case law is not brought to the notice of the court or the lawyers fails to bring a decision or in law to the notice of the court such practice the message the credibility of the judicial system.
- ONLINE LIBRARY: JOURNALS AND MAGAZINES
Internet has thousands of electronic subscriptions which can be found both for free at cost For eg:- Manupatra, There are many websites on the internet, which deal with electronic versions of many Journals and Magazines. Moreover technology makes it possible to easily show animated explanations of complex procedures.
Our technological advancement has no doubt reached that stage where some other technology can be combined to make the judiciary more accessible one. Notwithstanding, there are lot of obstacles that must be survived with the goal that the legal judiciary have the capacity to its actual potential utilizing the usage of data and correspondence innovation. When our legal framework turns out to be totally fruitful in actualizing the utilization of present day innovation, equity can be appropriately served to all in a snappy and proficient way.
Rise of technology in the legal profession
Prior to the time of type-write, law practice was a significant conventional, manual, careful, difficult and laborious in nature, and before the era of technology, the simple research of a case might be much time consuming which included manual requests face to face, library visits, record references, calls, gatherings and consumed a few days to accomplish the necessary outcome. The circumstance in the court corridors were more complicated, tedious extensive interaction. This is one among the significant difficulties in the disputing framework and a part of underlying driver for heaping pendency of cases.
As the technology developed, the legal sector across the nations immediately swapped and adopted it into their practices to go in hand in hand with the fast moving world. The work which required lengthy days together to achieve in previous time is finished inside the space of hours now in the cutting edge world.
Development of technology and its effect in legal field – an international picture
The US and Europe have two of the busiest and most advanced legaltech industries in the world, with around a thousand startups registered in important directories, such as the “Techindex” of Codex, the Stanford Centre for Legal Informatics.
The technology for the law
Legal technology is, essentially, the utilizing tehnology to offer various legal types of assistance and backing to the lawful business. Legal Tech organizations are by and large new businesses which are established with the hope to correct the old school legal field and its extension.
The legal technology has been being used for a long time in the market yet its application had been in any case than what it is today. Since 2011, the application and use of the legal tehnology has deviated from the customary arrangement, to promote legal practitioners, law firms, individual lawyers and other legal institutions.
Throughout the long term, the legal field has seen some remarkable changes. As in, preceding the legal technology of the 21st century, individuals were required to visit an attorney or a lawyer at each phase of a question. However, since this turn of events, it has grown gradually simple for the people to get solution to their issues.
Technology brings in a paperless environment. Filing FIRs online, examining witnesses, criminals, recording evidences etc by video-conferencing saves time, travel, costs, risk of handling hard-core offenders and enables speedy disposal of cases. The judges are in better position to analyze and determine the cases with readily available precedents and legal prepositions online.
More in recent times, the legal tech industry has earned a ton of consideration as digitalization has encouraged the extraordinary advancement in technology. This has largely changed the legal business, giving the development of legal tech new companies. The approach of lawful tech has altogether made the whole legal administrations more simple to utilize and reasonable in nature. In light of business technology and development, legal tech is rapidly transforming by the presentation of Artificial Intelligence.
With progressively developing tech patterns, numerous legal advisors or industry advocates are worried about their positions that are under danger by advanced technology like AI, machine learning, etc. On the other hand, there is not any proof against these threats, instead, such technologies will enhance lawyers’ skills and abilities.
Conventional law offices and practices face a serious challenge in the market as the legal tech start-ups have begun offering innovative services and attracting top emerging talent. This remains a major cause of shifting of talents from law firms to new legal start-ups.
Introduction of start-ups in the legal profession
Traditional legal counselors and law firms face a significant large in the market, however the real question relates to the effect that legal entrepreneurs will have on how these facilities are provided today.
In light of this, new companies or the start-ups have started appealing the top talents simply of the fact that they can offer something that the enormous firms can’t: flexibility. This impact will progressively get obvious inside the HR divisions of traditional law offices as youthful, capable, and as of recently graduated lawyer pursue enterprising paths and occupations in legal businesses and new start-ups.
Innovation in law: how legal tech can improve the legal space
Adaptability and flexibility at work can be difficult to accept for traditional businesses — particularly for the legal business, which as I would see it, is hesitant to change and try new. Work environment transformation in different enterprises is the new standard as we are seeing huge improvements in working practices, like gaming lounges and distant workdays.
One of the huge changes that a lawyer should adjust to and be OK and ready to adapt with is changing their employees’ work cycles to hold ability, raise worker commitment and guarantee an practicable degree of work, encouraging more joyful and more motivated employee, who are happy with their routine assignments and maintaining a healthy work-life balance.
Lastly it all comes down to this, that start-ups will start to draw in top and arising ability simply of the fact that they can offer something that the huge firms can’t: flexibility.
Law: from lawful device to tech device
Developments in the field of technology have been expressive and exceptional, and each field of life has redesigned and updated itself to accommodate the innovation in their lives. It is vital for the law experts to do likewise to guarantee that law doesn’t get given up and get out-dated. Since law is the actual spine of the country, it is appropriate that law is as present and obvious to us as technology is.
The objective of legal tech companies and legal tech start-ups is to enhance or extend the entrepreneurial spirit alongside development and offering help to law. There is a consistently expanding interest for the attorneys as there are an ever increasing number of issues that surface ordinary due to how speedy the world has become.
Possibly the biggest example of legal start-ups in india are:
Prarambh
A year ago, the law firm Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas launched a legal tech incubator with 3 Indian legal tech organizations in their program. Their aim is to “expand the spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation, identify domestic talent and support upcoming technologies in the business and practice of law.” As referenced in Artificial Lawyer, they additionally want to teach new start-ups and guide them to business achievement, sustain ability and empower co-sharing workspace.
Legalmind
This project was also a part of Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas incubator. They have launched AI-powerd processed research and file managing systems for legal counselors. As per the organization, attorneys utilizing their framework can settle on more information driven choices with their AI-controlled search and subsequently develop case winning techniques.
The frameworks can be utilized for research and judgment analysis, and it has a concise analyser that changes multipage documents into summaries which empowers legal counselors to break down briefs quicker.
Leegality
Leegality was likewise a part of the Prarambh incubator. They assist an eSignature stage where you can utilize the Indian identity number to sign agreements and make computerized stamps. These clear arrangements help Indian business disposing of paper waste and have smooth out their advanced work process. They even empower some basic document automation and offer a lot of API choices to build the interoperability.
Legal Kart
Legal Kart is a training managing stage for legal advisors. It additionally functions as a legal assistance marketplace where clients can purchase legal counsel and have conversation with legal specialists. They considerably offer free responses to usually posed inquiries, and you can easily file your own questions.
Their online platform is likewise accessible as a mobile application, so attorneys can tackle cases outside workplaces, and the customers can even have simply access to justice whereas they are on the go. It simply makes things easier and also simplifies the legal communication and seeks to improve client satisfaction by exchanging emails and phone calls.
Legal tech finds useful in the following areas
- Contract Drafting and its Management
- Matters and Case Management
- Accounting of the estimation of the case
- Billing for the customer
- Document computerization for introduction in the court
- Document stockpiling to be utilized in the cases
- Legal research utilized by the legal advisors and students
- Practice the executives (Law practice the board)
Devices offered by the legal tech include
- Marketplace associating customers with legal advisors
- Tools for Client Relationship Management (CRM)
- Providing devices for shoppers and organizations to finish lawful issue without help from anyone else, forestalling the requirement for a legal advisor generally through Artificial Intelligence
- Contract and Case examination
- Use of lawful computerized signature, which confirms the advanced character of every underwriter, keeps up the chain of authority for the records and can give review trails
- Automation of legitimate composition or other considerable parts of lawful practice
- Platforms for progression arranging for example Will composing, by means of online applications
- Providing devices to help with movement record arrangement in lieu of recruiting an attorney.
A major number of new companies and start-ups have come up in the market to contribute legal technical support, overcoming any barrier between the lawyers and the customer. Since these legal tech companies are pointed toward bringing down the expense of case and the expense of looking for legal advice, this is so because of the fact that it saves a ton of time and cash for the customers, and it provides opportunities and flexibility to the legal counselors more than ever.
Conclusion
Technology has not only improved the practice of law, but also the basic legal education system in the country. Though the primary of practical approach, court hall exercises, clinical methods are involved, technology reached the educating approaches to the legal applications, online learning, web seminars, paperless moot court exercises etc. The field of law unsurprisingly pulled into the fast pace of new and developing trends practiced all over the world and obliged to move forward with the technology to meet the ends of justice with finest speed. In the middle of the technology being a boon as well as a bane, it has overpoweringly became a part and parcel of system in practice and therefore, it is ideal to adopt the suggested aspects to equip in accordance with the demands to meet up the societal, financial and legal expectations to remain and maintain the core ability to obtain the essentially required result.
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