Technology

Bias and inaccuracy render artificial intelligence algorithmic criminal justice tools unsuitable for assessing risk when making decisions on whether to imprison people or release them, according to a report.

A London law firm yesterday launched a programme giving non-law tech start-ups already making money free legal advice for six months, and the prospect of investment funds.

A trial of blockchain involving digital transfer of property ownership has been completed by the Land Registry, but the agency has no plans to adopt the emerging technology itself any time soon.

Artificial intelligence software poses risks to society including tracking and identifying individuals, ‘scoring’ people without their knowledge, and powering lethal autonomous weapons systems.

The courts offer a “Rolls Royce system for the very few, while everyone else is left to walk”, Professor Richard Susskind has said in advocating for online courts.

Judges, justice campaigners, academics and others have raised wide-ranging concerns about the government’s ambitious court reform programme in evidence submitted to MPs.

Every family law practitioner will have felt the effects of court modernisation in their daily practice within a year, with the remaining parts of the divorce process moving online within months.

The use of blockchain software in the end-to-end conveyancing process came a step closer when a worldwide trial involving leading law firms and banks cut transactions from months to weeks.

Video hearings are set to be piloted for a second time in the tax tribunal, this time using “robust” technology after criticisms of its reliability last year, the Senior President of Tribunals has revealed.

The charity that publishes law reports for the higher courts of England and Wales yesterday launched a research lab to leverage its archive of law reports in boosting legal innovation.