The UK government has announced a new £4 million investment, which is aimed at delivering a second phase of the LawtechUK programme, supporting modernisation of the legal sector through the development of new technology like machine learning and data analytics tools.
The objectives of the funding are to:
- Increase innovation and the adoption of lawtech in the delivery of UK legal services.
- Support the growth of the lawtech sector in the UK.
- Enable English and Welsh law and the UK’s jurisdictions to become the foundation for emerging technologies, by supporting and promoting the UK Jurisdiction Taskforce’s work.
LawtechUK was launched in 2019, with an initial £2 million investment with the aim of transforming the UK legal sector through technology, providing resources, programmes and courses to promote new ways of delivering and accessing legal services via digital solutions.
The previous funding supported, among others, the launch of the Lawtech Sandbox – a research and development programme for UK entrepreneurs and start-ups to test and develop products or services looking to address the legal needs of businesses and society. One start-up to be facilitated by the sandbox is Legal Utopia, an app designed to help people understand their legal issues and access lawyers.
LawtechUK aims to improve understanding and awareness of legal technology and has produced a free online learning and research hub as well as a website to allow the sharing of experiences of remote alternatives to traditional court hearings.
The investment will also support and promote the work of the LawtechUK’s Jurisdiction Taskforce to help English law keep pace with technological developments. This builds on previous work to increase market understanding of smarter contracts and digital assets by showcasing real life examples of where these technologies are being used.
