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Chapter-1

Introduction

It can’t be denied – the Information Age has had a profound effect on virtually every
industry and profession around the world. Some corners of the workforce have flourished
(we’re looking at you, Silicon Valley); some industries have undergone major
transformations (if you’ve bought a record from a retail store in the last five years, you’re
one of a noble few); and a long list of professions, from travel agents to insurance
salesmen, have taken a serious beating. However, for Australian legal practitioners both
old and new, the question remains: how has the evolution of technology affected the legal
profession?

According to Lachlan McKnight, technology and the legal profession have endured a
love-hate relationship. McKnight is co-founder and CEO of Legal Vision, a legal service
provider which aims to assist individuals and SMEs with all of their business needs.
Founded in 2012, Legal Vision provides its services directly to its clients via a web
platform in an effort to challenge the conventional methods of the legal profession.

“Over the last decade many industries have been disrupted by the growth of online
providers,” said McKnight.

“The legal profession is perhaps one of the last big industries to not yet have been
radically transformed by the online revolution. Advances in technology now allow
lawyers to acquire customers online, service them online, and do so more quickly and at a
higher quality than a traditional lawyer. The industry is at the cusp of massive
disruption.”

“The largest benefit technology has had for lawyers is the one that is taken the most for
granted: faster access to knowledge bases – whether that be in terms of legislation, case
law or internal firm knowledge,” Horton said.
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“Websites and knowledge management systems incorporate micro-categorization and

hyperlinking of knowledge. This has transformed the way that the lawyer obtains and
interacts with the core components of their work. These technologies have become so
ingrained in today’s law firm that many lawyers do not realize what a huge leap forward
this is in legal knowledge

“As with any disruptive force, the tech revolution in law will negatively affect revenues
and profits for existing incumbents, whilst nimble start-ups are likely to capture market
share,” said McKnight.

“Simple legal tasks which many sole practitioners have derived much of their revenue
from will become more and more commoditized. Law firms will either have to choose to
provide high-volume commoditised services, or highly bespoke services. Law firms stuck
in the middle will be in trouble.” Horton added that easy access to information is posing
an increasing challenge to lawyers.

“Law at its core is information and the application of that information,” he said. As
information becomes increasingly commoditised the lawyer will find themselves being
more at the mercy of the factors that affect commodities such as price, scarcity and
perceived value. Lawyers are quickly losing a large part of their former business being
the dissemination of legal information. New business models will be required to take
account of the way information is now consumed by people. And while many lawyers
will believe that their practice area is immune from this, their clients won’t necessarily
agree.”

Even so, while the role of the lawyer is undergoing a shift, Horton believes there are
areas in which the services of a lawyer cannot be trumped by technology. “Where
technology is still a long way off is in the efficient application of legal knowledge
directly to legal problems,” he said.
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Chapter-2

Importance of Technology in Indian Judiciary

The enormous problems being faced by the judiciary due to arrears, backlog and delays
can be partly resolved by the introduction of automation in subordinate courts. The
problems faced by courts, judiciary and public seeking justice in terms of backlogs,
delays and expense are well known. While there are many dimensions to these problems,
improvements in operational efficiency, coordination, accessibility and speed which IT
could bring about can contribute significantly towards improvement and alleviation of
difficulties. However, the present pace of development, particularly at the subordinate
court level is too slow and is unlikely to have the desired impact in the near future.
Massive problems need appropriately large commitments and major initiatives if a
significant dent is to be made. Most of the bottlenecks identified by Judicial
Commissions and Committees referring to delays, arrears and backlog be partly
overcome if a sound judicial management information system is introduced in India. Case
Management, File Management and Docket Management will be vastly improved by
resorting to the use of computers. In particular, the following are areas where use of
computer will result in enhanced productivity and reduction of delays.
a)Legal Information Data Bases
b) On line query system for precedents, citations, codes, statutes etc.
c) Generation of course List and on line statistical reports
d) On line Caveat matching
e) On line updating of data, monitoring and “flagging” of events
f) Pooling of orders and judgments
g) Daily List generation with historical data of each case
h) Word processing with standard templates including generation of notices/processes
i) Access to international data bases
j) Feedback reports for use of various levels.
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The above are some areas where information technology can be introduced after due
preparation. In particular, tracking of cases would result in better monitoring and control
of cases by the Presiding Officers, rather than by the lawyers.
Computerization should be supplemented by the use of Fax, E Mail, Video conferencing
and other facilities for higher productivity and quicker decision making at all levels.1

2.1 Impact of Information Technology in Courts

The National Informatics Center has been closely associated with the Indian Judiciary for
the past eleven years. NIC’s role in serving the legal community through Information
Technology (IT) began as early as 1990 when the COURTIS (Court Information System)
Project was conceptualized and commissioned for streamlining registries of various
courts. COURTIS was implemented by NIC to serve all stakeholders like judges,
advocates, litigants, law firms, legal institutions, government, researchers and public in
the legal system. All High Courts have been computerized and interconnected though
NIC’s satellite-based computer-communication network NICNET. NICNET based
COURTIS project interconnects the Supreme Court and all High Courts and is in the
process of computerization and integration of all District Courts in India. The main
components of COURTIS are case status, Judgment Information System (JUDIS), cause
lists and daily orders on the internet. Apart from JUDIS, there are various other online
databases which facilitate the easy reference of cases. They include Manupatra, Westlaw,
IndianKanoon etc. NIC took up computerisation of all 18 High Courts and 10 Benches on
the lines of Apex Court’s Computerisation. NIC has also implemented the List of
Business Information (LOBIS) in all High Court Courts. It is about scheduling of cases to
be heard by the courts on the following day. It enabled the Registries of Supreme Court
and High Courts in eliminating manual process of cause list generation and thereby
eliminating manipulation by vested interests. These databases contain details of fresh
cases, disposed and pending cases. Most of the High Courts have opened query counters
along with Filing Counters for providing Case-status information to the litigants and
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advocates. In the Supreme Court of India and all High Courts fresh cases are filed only
before the computerized Filing Counters The defects, if any, are listed out and handed
over to the litigants/advocates for rectification. Time limitation is also checked by these
systems automatically. Further in 1997 NIC took up the computerization of all 430
District Courts in the country on the lines of High Courts Computational Project provide
judicial and legal databases to the District Judges
The project can be further extended to have Technology Courts formed in the country

2.2 (a) Tele-Justice Tele-justice, simply put, involves the use of IT

services in the field of judicial administration. It includes a simple telephone call, using
satellite technology to communicate between people in two countries, using video-
conferencing equipment or intranet technology. Today, video conferencing is used by
many judicial officers daily and is connected to prisons. Similarly, intra net technology is
being used in many courts.
With tele-justice, the accused can now be present in a court through a video link,
established on ISDN lines, between the prison and the court. Today, Gujarat and Bihar
have already introduced tele-justice. In Maharashtra, for instance, over 40 jails in and
around Mumbai are connected to district level courts through video conferencing.2

2.2 (b) Courtroom Technology

E-filing - filing documents electronically with the court - has become commonplace and
Federal and state courts are posting court filings on web-based databases. A growing
number of courtrooms are now equipped with all the bells and whistles of an electronic
wage. Built-in monitors and equipment facilitate the use of trial presentation software and
other technology in the courtroom.

Chapter-3

Law Firm Technology

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In law firms, electronic billing (“e-billing”) is gradually replacing traditional paper

invoices. Technology has also become an important legal marketing tool and new law
firm websites and legal blogs spring up daily in cyberspace.

Electronic case management has also changed how documents are handled. Firms are
now storing voluminous case files electronically and employing databases to track, edit,
search, distribute and archive documents.

Bickel & Brewer, a Dallas-based law firm, illustrates the extent technology has changed
legal processes. “We image virtually everything that comes into the office…every single
piece of paper, even a note…then we send the images to our 24-hour staff in India,” says
William Brewer, III, the firm’s co-founder and co-managing partner. This system helps
organize all firm data and provides a constant universal backup to the firm’s onshore
docketing system.

The Courts are slowly catching up, with many courtrooms installing computers and
software programs that allow for complex court hearings with volumes of documents to
be conducted and heard electronically. The days of the Barrister and his entourage of
document trolleys and suitcases may soon be at their end!

Social media has changed the way lawyers market their firms or practices. The rise of the
LinkedIn or Facebook legal practice profile, the lawyer blog, the YouTube video, or even
the lawyer Twitter page, has changed the nature of the legal practice from one that was
formal and distinct, to one that is publically informative and accessible.

Programs such as BoardTRAC iPad board portal allow people to review and amend a
document online together while sitting at different PCs. These technologies usher in a
new age of collaboration, and increased productivity as people are no longer limited by
their physical location when conducting legal work.

Law firms are increasingly engaging with softwares and apps designed to enhance
productivity and efficiency. The law firms embracing these changes will gain a
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competitive edge towards those lagging behind, as they begin to adapt to the world
around them and the technological advantage it demands.3

Virtual libraries encourage flexibility in work arrangements, as lawyers are able to access
legal documents and books from anywhere at any time. This has in turn encouraged
growth in the teleworking and virtual firm trend, two other predictions for the law firm of
the future.

Law firms all over the world are being confronted by the changes offered with
technological developments

Minor activities that were once time consuming and slowed down the legal process are
now made much faster and easier, allowing lawyers to spend their time on more
important tasks. Plowing through piles and piles of books in a legal library to find a
particular case is no longer necessary with electronic records and search.

Chapter-4
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Corporate Technology

Technology is equally important in corporate legal departments. According to Outside

Counsel’s 2007 In-House tech survey more companies are leveraging technology as a key
strategic asset. Computer programs exist for almost every corporate function, including
filing trademarks and patents, tracking directors' stock holdings, preparing budgets,
tracking subsidiary data, creating organizational charts and monitoring outside counsel
fees.

Technology plays an important role within corporate legal departments. Legal technology
is key in multiple areas, including work flow management, e-discovery management,
document review, e-billing administration and hosting capabilities. Because we do not
sell technology, nor are we aligned with any vendors, we are able to offer objective,
unbiased advice—a rarity in today’s crowded technology marketplace. Argo point
evaluates clients’ real needs in order to identify the most appropriate solutions.

Corporate legal departments realize that technology may be a key spend associated with
many of their legal services—that does not mean they have time to critically assess the
technologies in use. Technology can quickly become obsolete and lose its value. Legal
department leadership must manage technology in this rapidly evolving market. It is
therefore imperative that the management of corporate legal groups understand how their
current use of technology “stacks up” in this rapidly evolving market in order to best
manage the use of technology within their department.4

In the $93 billion corporate law industry, companies spend an estimated $4.2 billion each
year on legal fees in mergers and acquisitions alone.

Technological innovation spurred increased efficiency, helping firms get through reviews
more quickly, with ultimate time and cost savings passed on to the clients. Expedited

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document review is also a helpful differentiator firms can use to better market
themselves. Many parallels can be drawn to the transactional side of the legal industry
where completing the due diligence process efficiently in a merger or acquisition allows
the corporate attorneys involved to focus on the negotiation of the deal documents.

This is not to say that software will replace the junior attorney. Rather, attorneys will be
able to use technological tools to help them work more accurately and efficiently.
Software is most effective when incorporated as a seamless part of an attorney’s natural
workflow. As legal technology continues to evolve it will be important to use what we’ve
learned from eDiscovery to apply to future due diligence and transactional tools.

If technological innovation is to play a role across a wider range of legal specialties, now
is the time for transactional attorneys to experience and embrace it. Due diligence and
contract management are significant cost drivers in corporate law, making this an area
that would particularly benefit from the efficiency of technology (speed, cost savings,
increased accuracy).

In today’s changing legal climate, lawyers have the option to embrace technology that
will help them do their jobs better, more accurately and more efficiently. Corporate
lawyers are in a strong position to reap the benefits of this next wave of innovation,
setting the stage for a more efficient legal practice.5

Chapter-5

10 Other Ways How Technology Is Changing the Legal

Profession
1. “Smart” hardware.

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Smart phone's and tablets have made remote work easier and more convenient than ever.
According to the 2014 American Bar Association Technology Survey, lawyers are using
legal apps like Fastcase, TrialPad and TranscriptPad on their mobile devices, as well as
apps to access LexisNexis and WestlawNext. 

2. Electronic libraries.

Online legal libraries and legal research sites like LexisNexis and WestlawNext have
made it faster, easier and cheaper to access the most up-to-date information. This rapid
evolution is redefining the roles of legal librarians and information specialists, who may
need to become publishers, market analysts, trainers, members of client teams and more,
writes Robert Ambrogi on his LawSites blog.

3. e-Discovery.

This field is growing due to the volume and complexity of electronic data. Large
litigation cases involve acquiring, organizing, storing and retrieving millions of
documents, and corporate legal departments and law firms are increasingly using third-
party services to manage the task. Predictive coding is a powerful tool within
eDiscovery that identifies similar or identical electronically stored information, but it
does have drawbacks, such as blind spots.

4. Cloud computing.

With SaaS (software as a service), legal professionals can access files from any
connected device and easily share files with colleagues and clients. A 2014 LexisNexis
study showed that lawyers use the cloud mainly for document management and backup.
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Cloud-based legal technology has also enabled the rise of virtual law practices, which
are able to offer services at a lower cost. 

5. Social media.

Sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter have become important tools for
networking, advertising and acquiring clients. Legal blogs and online marketing allow
solo practitioners and smaller firms to gain visibility and better compete with larger
firms. To grow their businesses, some firms are hiring social media strategists to develop
and manage their online communication and presence.

6. Security protocols.

Security breaches — like malware, hacking and data theft — cost organizations money
and client confidence. Assessing cyber risks now to avoid problems later has become a
priority for many legal management teams. With more information being stored in the
cloud and BYOD (bring your own device) a growing trends within the workplace, firms
and corporations must teach employees about security risks and compliance issues and
establish and enforce privacy protocols surrounding personal devices.

From online databases to predictive, technology has transformed the way legal
professionals operate. And the evolution continues: Innovations and new platforms
unimaginable today will keep changing the field and the day-to-day work of legal
professionals in the years to come6.

7. Forensic Audits
Many legal professionals work with accountants, law enforcement and other government
agencies to defend or prosecute people who are accused of white collar and financial
related crimes. The audit process is more important than the tools used to conduct these

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comprehensive investigations. However, business people who perform these types of

crimes normally use IT tools. A lawyer must understand and demonstrate how these
computer based crimes are committed to make a strong case in their client’s defense or
to prosecute someone in court. These technology skills also extend to asking the right
questions about evidence that is gleaned from associated computers. Lawyers who work
on cases involving personal injury, family law, insurance and financial services law
cases often use the described IT and problem solving skills7.

8. Data Analytics
Harnessing data for marketing efforts has increased the sales for many companies and
helped them to provide a greater level of customer service. However, this same data can
be used to catch unethical business people who are involved in money laundering
schemes and other fraudulent activities. For example, knowledgeable lawyers can use
data analytics software to detect financial discrepancies resulting from company
executives who misrepresent their companies’ assets during mandatory reporting periods
to skew business valuation data. IT data analytic tools are also used to determine the
level of income available for child and spousal support payments in family law cases.

9. Research and Administration

Legal professionals who do not work on forensic audit and fraud cases still utilize IT
tools in their daily job tasks. Legal documents and government statutes have been slowly
ported to web enabled data bases so that frequent trips to law libraries are unnecessary.
For example, lawyers and paralegals can subscribe to legal research repositories like
LexisNexis to find the latest information about case law relating to specific industries
and businesses. The electronic search feature of these types of databases helps legal

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professionals gather relevant data very quickly which leaves more time for analytical
activities and court case preparation. Paralegals and legal assistants also electronically
submit the legal documents that are required by courts to process cases.

10. Legal Professionals and Technology

Lawyers, paralegals and other legal professionals are using technology more than ever
before, operating database applications specific to their practice area and using video
conference tools and other electronic devices to complete daily tasks.

While law libraries are not extinct, electronic legal research prevails as the most
common method of legal research. Legal professionals use a wide range of legal
databases to perform research, verify case law and track data. Westlaw and Lexis/Nexis
continue to be among the most widely used legal research databases although new
software products are constantly entering the market.8

Conclusion

The use of technology in judicial process as well as ADR has increased tremendously.
Our country has come a long way since the first initiative for the computerisation of
courts was taken in 1990. Its advantages have been clearly felt as it has become easier for
judges, lawyers as well as litigants to participate in the process of law. It has considerably
reduced the delay in the various aspects of judicial process and brought down the amount

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of backlog of cases. Access to justice is well served by technology as it allows more

dialogue between the citizens and public institutions.

Before the widespread use of IT in the legal profession, paralegals and lawyers spent a
great deal of their time in law libraries and law offices preparing for cases. With the
proliferation of IT tools that make legal research more efficient, legal firms are forced to
reassess their entire organizational structure and become leaner to compete with other law
offices. Also, the use of mobile computing devices extends the work place of legal
professionals to virtually anywhere in the world. This technology benefit brings
additional controversy as United States (U.S.) paralegals and legal assistants face
potential job competition from competent, international legal professionals who are
knowledgeable about U.S. laws and procedures.

New Federal Rules of Civil Procedure enacted in late 2006 have further fueled the need
for tech-savvy legal professionals. The new Federal Rules require parties in litigation to
preserve and produce documents that exist only in electronic form (“e-documents”) such
as e-mails, voicemails, graphics, instant messages, e-calendars and data on handheld
devices.

The time-intensive process of reviewing and producing millions of pages of electronic

information has spawned a new host of litigation database management tools. This
database technology allows legal professionals to image, code, analyze, review and
manage the massive amounts of electronic evidence, a process called “electronic database
discovery” (EDD).

E-discovery and the growing use of electronic litigation database tools have even given
birth to a brand new profession, the litigation support professional, to implement and
manage these new technology tools.

Although the conservative legal industry has been slow to embrace technology, it now
infiltrates every aspect of law practice. The American Bar Association’s legal blog
directory provides more information on technology in the legal field
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As advances in law technology revolutionize today’s legal landscape, the role of the legal
professional has evolved. The automation of legal processes has prompted lawyers,
paralegals, legal secretaries and other legal professionals to become proficient at an ever-
increasing array of word processing, spreadsheet, telecommunications, database,
presentation and legal research software. Law technology has impacted every aspect of
the legal field, from law firm and corporate practice to courtroom operation and
document management.

Tech innovations have transformed the legal profession, and there’s no end in sight. Its
little wonder that a majority (57 percent) of lawyers polled by Robert Half Legal for its
Future Law Office research report, Technology’s Transformation of the Legal Field, said
that their firm plans to spend more money on legal technology over the next two years.
Here’s our list of the top tech trends changing the legal field.

References

1. Importance of technology in legal field

[Link]
archive/2011/02/04/how-technology-will-shape-and-change-the-legal-field-over-the-next-
[Link]?Redirected=true
2. Importance of technology in judiciary and tele justice, technology in courts,
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[Link]
reform-process

3. Importance of technology in law firms

[Link]

4. Corporate technology

[Link]
assessment/

5. More wider importance of technology in corporate law

[Link]
innovation/

6. Other importance of technology

[Link]

7. Forensic technology

[Link]

8. Research and legal professional impotence of technology

[Link]
profession/