WE ARE living in a digital age where artificial intelligence emerges as the most hyped of all. AI creates an illusion that it is human parallel intelligence, although it is not in fact. The OECD defines AI as a machine-based system that has limited autonomy to make some decisions. It can be termed complementary to human intelligence as it is made from natural resources with human intervention.
The legal industry has also become accustomed to the recent trend of AI-powered technological tools to expedite its services. However, applications of AI and other tech tools are quite uncommon in the legal profession in Bangladesh. It has become popular in the US, the UK, Canada, Europe, Australia, China and many other jurisdictions to do a range of routine legal works like data mining from large volumes of documents, contract review, pleadings writing, predicting timelines and outcomes of lawsuits, pattern analysis, case management, law firm management, evidence analysis, document analysis, replying to clients鈥� queries through a preprogrammed chatbot, triaging and allocating matters, legal research, due diligence, risk assessment and even adjudicating cases through an automatic decision-making process. Consequently, it reduces the workload, cost and time of both the legal professionals and litigants as the technology-based tools can work promptly and tirelessly, which also reduces the possibility of human error.
Nonetheless, digitalization of the legal sector is still an ambitious aspiration in Bangladesh, whereas the government was successful in popularising the theme of 鈥楧igital Bangladesh鈥� and now has a vision to make 鈥楽mart Bangladesh鈥� by 2041. The whole judiciary is still operating in manual systems while it needs the immediate adoption of useful modern technologies. It should transform the traditional approaches into digital not only to comply with the vision of the government but also to deliver a better service to the nation. Basic digitalization of legal services like e-case filing, e-track allocation, e-discovery, electronic case management, etc are not yet largely introduced in our court systems. Even elementary legal research like searching case laws from leading law reports electronically, is not well organised and widely accessible in the country. Inauguration of effective tech tools in case filing, hearings, serial maintenance, etc can reduce corruption and enhance accountability and transparency in the judiciary.
Although there are projects going on to deploy the latest technology-based solutions in the court processes in Bangladesh, those are not fully implemented or have been unsuccessful in addressing the issue. Nonetheless, there are some behavioural and practical barriers behind non-digitalization of the legal industry in the country as well, whereas the earlier Chief Justice faced protests from a group of lawyers while trying to convert the paper-based cause list fully online for the Supreme Court case hearing.
It is undeniable that there is a visible gap between modern technologies and the understanding among legal professionals (ie, judges, lawyers, court administrators and staff) about how these tools are working and how they can impact the fundamental principles of justice, including transparency, access to justice, accountability and equality before the law, openness of justice, procedural fairness, and efficiency. As a result, the stakeholders in the judiciary require comprehensive knowledge and training to deal with both the pros and cons of new technologies in their professional lives.
The subsequent couple of paragraphs of this article are going to exemplify various uses of tech tools currently in legal practice globally to make their profession less laborious, although all of them get criticism from legal scholars simultaneously.
Legal professionals regularly review piles of files that waste a lot of time to find appropriate things. Finding necessary information in time is a challenge in the present system in Bangladesh for both lawyers and judges, and it will be obviously chaotic when everything is preserved in paper-based files. E-discovery can be a solution through AI-driven tools to get instant information in seconds. E-discovery in law is the method of collecting, storing, reviewing, and exchanging information related to a case in an electronic format instead of keeping everything in a paper file. Moreover, with the aid of AI, it is possible to use filters and specific parameters, such as geographic locations or dates, when searching for data via AI-driven tools.
Additionally, AI algorithms can perform thorough searches and scans of databases of statutes, regulations, jurisdictions, case laws, and more, as were done by junior lawyers earlier. AI software is also used to generate templates to automate the process of case record creation. In this process, filling in the details without the need to write everything from scratch can produce invoices, motions, agreements, pleadings, bills, etc that enable legal practitioners to craft documents that are aligned with the data-driven insights. Moreover, AI can analyse previous landmark decisions rapidly to identify patterns in judgements, which can aid in projecting the potential outcomes of similar cases. This prediction can debatably be advantageous in framing a legal strategy and settlement negotiations, offering lawyers and litigants valuable insights into the feasible direction a case may take.
However, there is a tension between the usefulness and risks of using tech tools, including AI, machine learning, and natural language processing devices, in the justice sector, as they have inherent dangers too, such as discrimination in the algorithm, bias and fairness concern, data protection, security of confidential legal data, privacy apprehension, compliance with the complexity of legal reasoning, expensive, insufficient access to the internet, the possibility to assist litigants by non-lawyers, etc. On top of that, overdependence on technology may lead to injustice and gradually diminish human intelligence and efficiency. Therefore, it is high time to assess the prospects and threats that AI techniques present to the legal industry extensively.
Though legal professionals are slowly coping with the trend of technology, it is presumed that the use of AI-enabled tools will increase in the coming days in the judiciary. It is also anticipated that full-fledged use of technology in the legal industry will alter the traditional atmosphere of the judiciary and encourage litigants to seek redress from court more conveniently. It will also give them comfort to file and conduct cases from convenient places, as it will not always necessarily require their physical attendance. However, we must apply tech tools in legal practice with high caution and responsibility to maintain the standard of the profession and uphold the fundamental principles of justice.听
听
Raisul Sourav is the ethnic minorities officer 2024鈥�25 at the University of Galway Students鈥� Union and a doctoral researcher in legal analytics at the School of Law, University of Galway, Ireland.