Technology
DIY legal site experiments with ‘robot’ lawyer
A student who set up a DIY website to help consumers challenge parking tickets, and claim compensation for delayed travel or missold PPI, has added a natural-language ‘robot lawyer’ to draft documents. It has been welcomed by the solicitor who created a ground-breaking automated website aimed at helping people charged with motoring offences.
Case-tracking app will enable us to become biggest conveyancers, new ABS says
An ambitious new firm of licensed conveyancers has developed its own case-tracking app in a bid to become the biggest conveyancing business in the country. Managing director Simon Bath said the firm had funding from individual investors and private equity.
‘Hacking’ the law – computer programmers called in to aid advice centres
A ground-breaking legal ‘hackathon’ – pitting computer programmers against each other to reach the best solution to a legal technology problem in the space of a weekend – is to be held in London with the aim of generating technology that will assist law centres.
Briggs lays out vision for lawyer-free online courts
Lord Justice Briggs has set out radical plans to create an online court, which could become the compulsory starting point for money claims worth up to £25,000, and which would be designed “for use by litigants without lawyers”.
‘Amicable app’ aims to take some of the pain – and cost – out of divorce
A counsellor and a tech entrepreneur are launching an app to help couples going through separation or divorce, and cut down on the need for lawyers and the amount spent on them. The first version of the ‘amicable app’ will go live at the end of March.
Robot takeover of lawyers’ work “unlikely to be as far-reaching or as fast as predicted”
Automation by computers is unlikely to replace much of the work currently done by lawyers any time soon and the negative employment effects of technology have been overstated, according to a study.
Consumer rights forum launches legal services comparison website
Legal Beagles, a consumer rights forum, has launched a comparison website using its own research on fixed fees to decide which law firms are listed. Kate Briscoe, chief executive of Legal Beagles, said only around 500 firms published fixed fees on their websites.
Conveyancer who tested Veyo: Law Society “built something nobody wanted”
The managing director of a law firm involved in testing Veyo has described how the Law Society realised too late that it had “built something nobody wanted”. David Bridge said what was left of Veyo should be converted into a secure portal for conveyancers.
One in ten legal advice agencies facing closure next year
One in ten legal advice agencies warn that they are likely to close next year, a report for the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has revealed. More than half had been forced to make major changes as a result of LASPO.
Exclusive: Relate to launch UK’s first divorce ODR system
The first online dispute resolution (ODR) system for divorcing and separating couples in the UK is to be launched by Relate next spring. Relate has received no government funding for the project, and instead relied on a number of sources, including Google.
Blog
It’s time for law firms to ask tougher questions
For years, many law firms have treated ID verification as a box-ticking exercise. Run a liveness check, match a face to a document and move on. But that is no longer good enough.
Business fatigue to AI will risk job security
Whilst we know professional learning has always been part of career paths, to hire, retain and keep talent, AI needs to be embedded as a core part of this training.
On good authority? GenAI and the reputational risks to law firms
As GenAI’s influence grows, so do the risks which are already playing out in courtrooms across England and Wales, where some early adopters are setting precedents they would rather not.
