Practice Management

Machine learning could be used to explain even the most complicated and obscure wills in plain English, a software entrepreneur has predicted. He said another development over the coming years could be the use of chatbots to handle routine enquiries.

The Court of Appeal has criticised law firms which attract clients through adverts which suggest their previous solicitors may have undersettled personal injury claims. It also said there should be “a sensible limit” on what should be expected of a solicitor operating on a fixed fee in a “high volume, low cost commoditised scheme”.

A paralegal employed by a personal injury firm under an oral contract was entitled to a bonus payment worth almost £14,000, an employment tribunal has ruled. The judge said the firm could not unilaterally vary the contract that entitled the paralegal to up to 10% of profit costs above a target set at five times his gross salary.

The furore over ground rents that double periodically is likely to lead to a “swell” in negligence claims against conveyancers, who will be “first in the firing line”, a barrister has warned. He said these leases also often have other clauses which may be considered unreasonable and so pose a negligence risk.

A law student has become the latest entrepreneur to try and crack the problem of how to use online technology to improve the experience of consumers wanting to contact lawyers to solve their legal problems at a reasonable cost. Legista is a platform that will use artificially intelligent software to understand their matter and locate the right lawyer to deal with it.

Top UK law firms are ahead of their US counterparts in the use of artificial intelligence, an index of legal service delivery innovation has suggested. However, the creator of the Legal Services Innovation Index said it might just be that UK firms are “savvier about marketing this stuff to their clients”.

‘Robot lawyer’ LISA, an artificial intelligence (AI) app, has teamed up with Billy Bot, a barrister’s clerk chatbot, in what has been heralded as the first ‘robot relationship’ in the legal services world. For those LISA users who want help from a human lawyer, Billy Bot can refer them to a direct access barrister.

The Law Society has failed in its bid to strike out a negligence claim by a law firm that was the victim of a fraud after the details of another firm it had checked on the society’s online ‘Find a Solicitor’ facility turned out to be false.

City giant Allen & Overy has named the seven companies which will work in Fuse, its new lawtech incubator, including a well-known artificial intelligence business and a charity working on a platform to assist asylum seekers in gaining access to pro bono advice.

Two commercial solicitors are attempting to break into the online legal templates market with an ambitious strategy to expand into non-law professional services. So far Legalo has around 100 templates for sale and plans a further 250. Its website also has a find-a-solicitor type referral service.