7 Ways Technology Is Revolutionizing The Legal Industry

Technology has changed the outlook and performance of every profession, including law. From corporate practices to the courtroom, the legal industry currently enjoys the advantages brought by the technological revolution. Legal practitioners are equipped with tools that streamline the legal processes, ensure smart delivery, and provide efficient results.

Below are seven ways technology is shaping the legal industry:

  1. Legal Marketing

Traditional ways were used in legal marketing until lawyers realized most of their clients were on the internet. Some lawyers now adopt digital tools and techniques like websites and social media platforms to reach more clients and gain more legal foothold.

Although the differences between traditional law marketing and digital advertising are explicit, you can learn more here to understand them better. While the former is conservative, the latter is modern.

  1. Virtual Hearings

Court hearings are essential to assess legal observations related to a case. Lawyers and judges alike need to be physically present in courtrooms to conduct legal proceedings.

Thankfully, technology has changed this now. Today, court hearings can be both physical and virtual. Virtual hearings are a good alternative to physical hearings because of the global health crisis we are experiencing today. Just recently in Florida, a jury conducted trials via Zoom and awarded a verdict to the plaintiff. The swiftness of the judgment and the convenience it provided may be the beginning of more virtual hearings in the legal industry.

  1. Legal Cloud

Loads of paperwork are common in the legal industry. These include several documents clients need to sign for proper documentation. Setting down the full details of the legal terms and agreements in writing is part-and-parcel of the legal industry, so documentation is always essential.

However, many critical legal documents get lost due to poor management, especially when not saved incloud storage. Since the advent of cloud computing, some lawyers and judges are using ‘the legal cloud’ to secure, manage, and access all legal files. This innovation has led to a dramatic improvement in legal documentation.

  1. Automatons

Law is often seen as a boring field due to the repetition of some tasks in the profession. Many lawyers get stressed with their job due to increased deadlines, long courtroom hours, client demands, and billing pressures. Throw in the overtly theoretical features of the legal industry into the mix, and you’d have a stressful profession.

But with automation, there’s a breath of fresh air in the legal industry. Many tasks that require lawyers and judges to do repeatedly can be handled by automatons. The areas of law that need automation include contract signature, contract review, billing management, workflow management, and obligation management.

  1. Evidence Simulation

The rigors of acquiring evidence in law can be time-consuming and stressful. But there’s a solution in the form of a computer simulation. It generates prototypes as legal evidence. That way, simulation helps lawyers and judges to seamlessly determine the potential scope of any legal scenario during trials.

Aside from that, simulation saves time and money spent on getting witnesses. Therefore, it’s the way forward to reduce the physical and mental stressors of lawyers. And if legal practitioners can live a stress-free life, there’d be a significant courtroom improvement in the legal industry.

  1. Using AI In Legal Research

If you ask any legal practitioner what they think about legal research, you’re likely to get the same response that it’s a tedious process. Research is time-consuming. Considering the number of factors that need to be justified, lawyers move heaven and earth to come up with sound and truthful research.

Thankfully, there’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) proving to be useful in effective legal research. Through AI, lawyers can ask legal questions in plain words and be rest assured they’d get meaningful feedback from right people. Besides, AI can help with a judicial analytics tool to assist judges and lawyers in analyzing quantitative data.  It can also help in analyzing contracts and automating the approval process.

  1. Voice Technology

Lawyering involves a lot of reading and writing. Legal practitioners write about the basic and the complex provisions of the law. They take notes while listening to clients and ensure they’re following. They read documents to assess and analyze, figuring out the following line of action, which takes another chunk of writing.

Although writing is the heart of the law, it’s undeniably time-consuming. It’s unnecessary considering the alternatives lawyers can explore for taking down notes and gathering records. One of these options is voice technology, which allows legal practitioners to use dictation to record short spoken notes and save time spent in writing them.

Final Thoughts

The legal industry requires a lot of repetitive duties and never-ending obligations that make the work strenuous. But this doesn’t have to be anymore. Thanks to technological progress, lawyering has been made easy and more efficient. Several digital tools are helping legal practitioners to speed up legal procedures without compromising the pursuit of justice.

 

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