Embracing Advancements
The collective human psyche might be operating according to some strange laws. As it resists the change, which is constant and inevitable, to the last possible moment. A moment, post which, the piled-up avalanche of changes bursts the dam open.
That moment was the year 2020. And the change was overnight digital embracing by the Indian judiciary in the form of online and virtual hearings. Although, the Indian judiciary’s technological transformation has been in the making for the last five decades. What was once a closed-loop group has now grown up into a global enterprise pegged at $1011 by the end of 2021.
Legal Tech Transformation
The transformation was imperative. It happened when the legal sector began changing the way it operates. As computers entered every industry, topmost law firms in those times began storing their legal cases, data, records, and information on these digital machines. Quickly came the internet making communication faster.
Further technologies, gadgets, devices, hardware, and software became the daily used assistance by lawyers, attorneys, and legal professionals. They used it to ease their arduous tasks and offer competent legal access to their justice-seeking clients.
Transparent Law and Accessible Justice
IT and software solutions developing companies took the advantage of the increasing demand and began providing legal firms and individual professionals with ever-advancing legal technological or Legal Tech solutions. The terminology and the solutions became a new popular trend among legal enthusiasts.
This legal dependence on technology kept deepening as it enhanced the legal system’s efficiency, legal professionals’ productivity, and firm’s transparency for clients. The day-to-day legal proceedings could be tracked, traced, and monitored both by the firm and by the client using this legal tech.
Here are further proofs of how legal tech is reshaping the legal sector’s functioning:
Legal Automation: Manual in-house legal working was the tradition before the tech revolution. Although the primary tasks of the lawyers and attorneys were to constant interaction with clients, colleagues, and other industry professionals, two third of their time got wasted performing repetitive, fact searching and verifying tasks through the labyrinth of piled paperwork.
Now imagine the current scenario. Where legal tech software like simple word processors to hi-tech software like eDiscovery, are not only increasingly doing these tasks, but also quickening the functional pace, enhancing professional productivity, and offering enough time to legal professionals to focus on their most significant tasks.
Client-Attorney Communications Streamlined: According to the Law Firm Flexibility Benchmarking Survey, 2017, 64.7% or nearly two third of the law firms allow their lawyers and attorneys to telecommute.
Using such unified communicational platforms allows legal professionals to work from anywhere and anytime while constantly interacting with clients through diversified channels. This not only increases their personal efficiency but also streamlines client-lawyer/attorney communications.
Constant Research Ensured: Legal professionals’ constant demand for research is now getting fulfilled with advanced technologies like Machine Learning, Big Data Analysis, Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things.
The new devices like smartphones, laptops, tablets, PDAs, Kindle readers, etc. are reducing lawyers’ dependence on printed papers. Research also contains cross-verifications, reviews, and updating which were all time-consuming earlier.
However, now with the help of all the new gadgets and legal tech, legal professionals can do better research with increased precision and learn everything timely. In short continuous research is duly ensured by the revolutionary legal tech.
Digital Legal Case Management: Now legal professionals are increasingly utilizing digital business management platforms to manage their legal cases. In old days lawyers could be seen struggling with their case management aspects like records, data, info, and documents management, clients, and contact organization, scheduling meetings and keeping track of their assignment calendars, and billings.
However, with all the new technologies and smart devices available they are finding it easy to manage all of their cases, as the novel legal techs like a digital hub and cloud computing allow them remote access and real-time tracking, tracing, and monitoring of their cases.
It further allows them to keep their client’s in a constant loop increasing client-lawyer engagement, trust, and reliability. Many of the case management platforms and systems are web-based, giving an all-time in-sync feeling to all its users.
Online and Virtual Hearings: As mentioned earlier this is the new way judiciary including lower, middle, and in some emergency cases even higher courts are now functioning in online or virtual mode. This was to keep up the justice system deliverance going in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has though now waning but still is ongoing.
However, since the judiciary and the legal industry have found tremendous comfort and ease in conducting hearings and trials online or virtually, it could be continued in the future in normal circumstances also.
