Technology Tips

As part of our regular practice updates, this month we will be considering the latest proposals for expanding ‘e-justice’ in the civil court system. The Civil Justice Council has called for the creation of an online court within the next two years. This would be a radical overhaul of the current UK court system. Key features would include virtual courtrooms, a lawyer-free environment and the possibility of services similar to the eBay disagreement negotiating procedure. The online system would be for claims of up to £25,000, and the idea is backed by Lord Dyson, the master of the rolls, who is head of the civil judiciary in England and Wales.

E-justice

Password security is vital security

Last month’s huge data breach at the Panamanian law firm of Mossack Fonseca – to give you an idea of its size, it was hundreds of times bigger than the material released by Wikileaks in 2010 – is an example of just how much damage a data security leak can cause. The private affairs of the firm’s clients became public property overnight, allowing the press to trace money across continents and into tax havens. 

Although the leak uncovered some pretty questionable, and possibly illegal, behaviour on the part of some of the firm’s clients, many other clients who were not doing anything wrong had their most private financial affairs opened up for the world to see. 

Ever since the early 1990s, when the heinous murder of James Bulger was heard in Preston Crown Court, the English judicial system has slowly realised that there are plenty of occasions when certain defendants and trial witnesses need to be protected from the hugely intimidating environment of a courtroom.

Whilst the entire country was in uproar back in 1993 when the 10-year-old Jon Venables and Robert Thompson were tried for the murder of James Bulger, in their determination and haste to bring these boys to justice at that time, our country’s legal system broke just about every rule in the book. This was to the extent that the English legal system was later criticised severely by the European Court of Human Rights in 1999 for failing to give Thompson and Venables a fair trial.

The Robots Are Coming

The fresh, shiny new year has arrived, and I hope that you are also feeling fresh and shiny after the holiday break. What will 2016 hold for you, jobwise?

Past performance is not necessarily a guide to future performance, but one major development during 2015 that is likely to have some impact on your firm (and therefore on you) in the next year is the fast-moving field of artificial intelligence (AI) and the law.

Some big claims are being made for recent developments: there has been talk of “the demise of lawyers”, and of 2016 being a watershed moment in legal business. Reports that lawyers are going to be obliterated have been much exaggerated, but it is likely that within the next couple of years, AI is going to start affecting your work – in good ways and in bad.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Case management systems are designed to monitor the life cycle of a case in order to manage the workflow of everybody dealing with the case. This makes the most effective use of everyone’s time. There are lots of different systems available to perform this task, but they all have a lot in common when it comes to the features on offer.

Different systems have different types of law firms in mind. There are software systems, which are specifically programmed for small law firms that have only a few cases on the go at any one time, and there are other systems for larger law firms handling many cases at once. There are also some systems which are designed to cater for specialisms and niches within the legal profession, such as medical law or intellectual property law.

Have you ever authorised a payment from your bank account with a PIN, checked off an “I agree” box on a website or acknowledged delivery of a package by signing with a stylus on the delivery man’s electronic pad? The chances are that most of us have done all of those things within the past few weeks. Every time we did so, we were “e-signing” a contract or other document. In fact, as I’ll make clear shortly, we were not only e-signing but also “digitally signing” — and yes, there is a difference between the two. But whichever way you do it, signing documents without a traditional pen has become an integral part of modern life.

With hundreds of Twitter accounts dishing out the latest law updates, it can be difficult to separate the useful from the useless. Twitter has masses of info, advice and tips to offer you - simply searching ‘#law’ will generate thousands, maybe even millions, of results. Click on the right accounts though, and you could be on to a winner - reading all the latest law ‘need-to-knows’ and storming up the legal-professional ladder.

However, to save you from the ceaseless searching, we’ve teamed up with Surrey-based solicitor Barlow Robbins to help scope out every nook and cranny of the Twittersphere and unearthed the best law-based accounts to help you succeed and flourish in your law career. Grab your mobile, tablet or laptop and have a gander at these top tweeters:

With the explosion of technological advances we’ve seen in recent years, it seems as though every single aspect of life has been affected and enhanced by technology. Not just life, though, but death as well: the wills industry has already started modernising itself in various ways in order to keep up with the times.

From probate apps on Apple and Android devices to the recording of video Wills, the Wills and Probate industry is undergoing a technological revamp in all sectors. Here are some of the major shake-ups we can expect to see in the coming months and years, as well as some of the implications of said developments.

The Main Upcoming Advancements

Most jobs have been subject to changes over the past few decades as we race to keep up with constant advances in technology. Many technological developments have made life easier, but we need to be aware of how to work with them and stay vigilant.

Smartphones and tablets have already revolutionized our lives – allowing us to shop on the go, apply for jobs, take and send photos and video clips, email from the beach, and instantly access maps as and when we need them.

A recent British survey found that we spend roughly 23 days a year looking at our phones. They really are a part of our lives, so it makes sense to try to use them to improve our productivity – rather than letting them hold us back from getting things done.

New apps are being developed all the time, and many of them can be used to make everyday life more manageable. Here are a few that could make your working day run more smoothly: