Standard Technology
In the short term we are currently aware of the speed with which technology is impacting on our lives; a lawyer that doesn’t have access to a PC, a network, word processing, e-mail and accounts really is a rarity. Not only are these items seen as essential but systems such as time tracking are now equally key – after all, no matter how much you bill, if you don’t log what you are doing, you don’t know how profitable a piece of work is. Practices should be looking to case management, on-line billing and a single database as the minimum requirements necessary to be able to compete on an IT standing.
In the medium term, technologies such as extranet (firm, client and counsel intranets linked to form a type of secure internet) and video-conferencing will be the norm. In the longer term Network Computers (NCs) and digital TV and video on demand will have the greatest impact of law practice.
Web TV
Digital TV will make the home NC a reality. Video on demand requires a high bandwidth. The provision of this will become a key logistic element of the network. This will drive the price and architecture of commercial Local Area Networks (LANs). Video shops will become obsolete and Web TV will be born. This will be like CEEFAX on the Web but better. People will use it because it’s there, it’s cheap and it’s fun. Thus we will get used to being provided with all our information services via the Web, including shopping advice, not only sales but ‘Which?’ style advice, including legal advice.
Ultimately, technology will bring us the PCD, a voice activated, combined NC/phone/video phone with holographic screen and the capacity to access any server based on software or data. If you think this sounds a little far fetched, then think again. The technology for this device will be available in three years: Motorola are working on holographic screens, while Philips and IBM may at last be showing signs of getting voice technology right.
Information Service Providers
Technology will bring us the PCD, a voice activated, combined NC/phone/video phone with holographic screen and the capacity to access any server based on software or data. The technology for this device will be available in three years.
So how will all this new technology affect law firms? At a corporate/commercial level lawyers will become pro-active Information Service Providers; they will provide the building blocks for a document build system, for example, producing custom contracts. This service can be provided to the client’s system via the network. It will consist of a bespoke document building application plus the legal text itself. There will be more standard templates for all areas of case management. This is starting in high volume litigation work, eg ULR, but will spread to other areas.
The reason that litigation support systems have not taken off in the UK is specifically because barristers see the ability to control large numbers of documents in their head as being their major selling point.
As case management standards become common place, there will be industry standards to integrate so that both you and your clients will look at the same information, possibly even with different case tools. Lawyers will compete on the basis of their processes as well as their expertise and these processes will be more visible.
Direct Legal Services
The private client will have access to Direct Legal Services; franchised processes will mean standard templates available for interactive Web-based delivery. We are already seeing the start of this one-to-many process in the US, where booth technology has started for divorce work. This is a combination of case management, document building and direct public access to the law. The client will go to a booth like a bank ATM and the touch screen system will guide them through the preparation of divorce papers, prepare them and send them to the court. This technology is the embryo of a service that can be provided to the client’s home via Web TV to help them get access to legal services.
The effect of this legal standardisation will be that legal service providers will again compete on the basis that their process is better than the competition’s. The same is true when it comes to litigation. The streamlining of cases will make case management essential and firms will again differentiate themselves by the efficiency of the process aided by IT.
The Bar
But how will all this automation and technology affect the Bar? Adversely, it seems: there is no incentive for the Bar to get involved with the IT process, it merely inserts an extra layer of work and process into the system. Why should the lawyer not control and execute the whole case, including advocacy? In my personal opinion the reason that litigation support systems have not taken off in the UK is specifically because barristers see the ability to control large numbers of documents in their head as being their major selling point.
Conclusion
In the long term the increased use of IT will cause significant social change, which in turn will affect the delivery of legal services to the end-user. The delivery of IT services will eventually become an invisible function, like the telephone or television infrastructure – just as we take these technologies for granted, the same will happen with IT. We will in the future use our PCDs without thought for programs, databases, programmers or IT Managers and suchlike. That doesn’t mean that they won’t be there, just that the delivery mechanism will have changed beyond all recognition. The same is true for lawyers.
In the short term we are entering a new era when the computerisation of the process can improve the product the lawyer delivers, in the same way that word processing improved the process of document production.
