There are several ways in which AI is transforming the legal field. Language models such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4 and BERT are useful for tasks like writing and researching. Law firms around the world are already using AI assistants like CoCounsel, Jasper, and AI-lawyer. The most recent firm to introduce generative AI technology to its legal professionals is PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
For the administration of justice, AI could be used for case management, prioritization of cases, and assigning cases to judges. It can also assist the decision-making process by analysis of the copious amount of data, detecting patterns and trends, and predicting case outcomes for the judges. The predictive feature can also help with the determination of fair sentencing and also evaluate if there is a possibility of the repetition of the offence by the convict especially through analysis of any past criminal or arrest records. All these features can help curtail case disposal time and allow the timely provision of justice.
AI is not supposed to replace associate lawyers or paralegals, but meant to assist them in performing their job more efficiently, therefore the fear of people losing their livelihoods is unfounded as AI tech needs to be operated by humans.
For the practitioners of law, going through the bulk of documents and case files to extract necessary and meaningful information and researching relevant laws and citations is not merely time and energy-consuming, but also requires hiring more junior associates and paralegals. AI could perform these functions in a fraction of the time compared to humans and with greater accuracy since human cognition is prone to errors. Commonplace tasks like registration of documents, producing letters, invoices, managing client records and meetings, compliance work, legal drafting, making case summaries, preparing case arguments, questions for witness examination, evidence preparation, extracting data from trial transcripts, and tracking case proceedings and court dates can also be performed by the AI. With AI performing such manual and time taking tasks, the time and costs incurred by a law firm will see a substantial decline. The reduced costs as a consequence would decrease client fees, thus making legal assistance more accessible. This will also bridge the communication gap between lawyers and their clients. Furthermore, AI is not supposed to replace associate lawyers or paralegals, but meant to assist them in performing their job more efficiently, therefore the fear of people losing their livelihoods is unfounded as AI tech needs to be operated by humans. Law firms that fail to take advantage of AI technology run the risk of losing clients and being less cost competitive.
The curriculum of law schools will have to be drastically updated to train upcoming lawyers to use artificial intelligence technology.
There is no doubt about AI being the future, however there are certain challenges in its adoption by the legal field. The law field in most countries is antiquated and less dynamic compared to other fields. In Pakistan, it is especially sluggish; therefore introducing AI is going to be an arduous and lengthy process. The upfront costs of digitizing everything are going to be astronomical, which means that countries faced with economic hardship will take a long time before AI could be completely incorporated into legal functions. Most lawyers and judges lack the technical expertise required to rely completely on AI which means law officers will need to be trained first. The governments will also be required to take measures for the provision of technology and internet connections in remote areas. The curriculum of law schools will have to be drastically updated to train upcoming lawyers to use artificial intelligence technology.
Researchers at ProPublica, an organization for investigative journalism, have discovered that the program Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions (Compas) that utilizes a predictive algorithm regarding bail decisions used by a US court has incorrectly labeled black offenders to be more at risk of being a repeat offender in comparison to white prisoners by 45% to 24%.
Law schools need to offer mandatory courses related to legal technology. In the future, the ability to operate AI tools will become quite a sought-after skill by recruiters thus necessitating efforts and funds to be directed at the development of the said skill. Law firms will also need to play their part in training the current law practitioners to keep them updated and engaged with changing global legal practices. Another challenge in the use of AI predictive functions is the presence of bias and discrimination in forecasting which can lead to algorithmic discrimination. Researchers at ProPublica, an organization for investigative journalism, have discovered that the program Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions (Compas) that utilizes a predictive algorithm regarding bail decisions used by a US court has incorrectly labeled black offenders to be more at risk of being a repeat offender in comparison to white prisoners by 45% to 24%. Another massive difficulty that using AI poses is the breach of sensitive data, the consequences of which are always dire for the stakeholders. According to a survey conducted by The European Consumer Organisation in 2020, 45-60% of Europeans believe that increased use of AI will lead to higher risk of privacy violation. This means more people would be resistant to use of AI, thus resorting to older practices instead of capitalizing on the new technology. Digitized data of private nature will need to be protected from hackers and data merchants. To prevent this breach, not only advanced coding but also stricter laws with greater penalties will be required.
Despite legal technology being the future and its gradual adoption in various countries like the USA, Australia, China, and even UAE, Pakistan still lags a light year behind. Policymakers must join hands with legal practitioners and technology developers to introduce the use of AI in the Pakistani legal field, which still heavily relies on old practices of manual documentation, recording, filing, and storing that greatly impacts case disposal time and the provision of swift justice. The Pakistani justice system is replete with issues like the backlog of cases, overburdened judges, expensive litigation costs, etc., most of which could be solved by the use of AI. As the world inches towards more efficient deployment of technology, Pakistan must also embrace international technological trends to compete in the global market of legal and technology entrepreneurship, and match the high standards of the justice system maintained in developed countries. As they say, change is the only constant, and keeping up with the exigencies of the fast developing world is our only option.