By Prof. Harish Suryavanshi
The past decade has seen a revolution in information systems, which has affected the entire business world. Legal practice is no exception. The immediate and constant flow of relevant information to the right legal users at the right time has become the backbone of legal practice. Technology has enabled legal users to obtain this type of information quickly and easily.
Information technology (IT) offers possibilities for legal practitioners not only as an aid in administrative processes but also for legal tasks. Information Technology (IT) has an undeniably key role to play, not only in streamlining the operations of a practice, but also in creating opportunities to provide new and better services to clients. Practices are therefore starting to recognize the importance of using IT as a strategic business tool.
The Internet as a Legal Tool
Furthermore, by assisting firms to achieve gains in economy, effectiveness and efficiency, information technology accelerates the deskilling of the ‘intellectual craftwork’ of legal practice.
With the virtual explosion of the Internet and its proliferation throughout the legal community in the past few years, lawyers and law firms have come to realize the unique benefits of online services.
The Internet offers lawyers the advantage of being able to search on any topic at any time; and according to the survey, the lawyers are making good use of the resources available. Internet can become the most important part of a lawyer’s practice or profession.
It is not possible all the time to go through law books, texts, legal reports of judgement, but with access to internet it is a great relief for the lawyer as he can easily and effectively find out the relevant or required information/counsel through World Wide Web sites which can be found through search engines like Google.com, Infospace, Zip2, Dogpile Web, Alta Vista etc.
Internet can provide comprehensive and authentic material required by the lawyer. The latest judgements, court cases and case laws can be found on the internet with different kinds of options available which helps one’s time and energy which can be done with little efforts. Supreme Court judgements are also available on CD ROMs. Thus, Internet has a great potential to be used as an important source of legal material as reference material.
Making Lawyers More Competent and Efficient
Since the use of computers and Internet connectivity reduces paperwork of the lawyers considerably, it helps in enhancing the efficiency of the lawyers and the legal firms. Another important advantage as discussed earlier is that its use can make lawyer more competent and result-oriented. More significantly it can be done in an enormous speed thus saving a lot of time and efforts of the legal practitioners.
Moving Towards an Integrated Approach to IT
IT therefore provides a number of key advantages. Systems that work together are typically more cost-effective and deliver better performance and value. By making it easy to locate, share and extract information, they improve internal efficiency and support the delivery of a more client-focused and responsive service. The benefits of information technology in business practice can also apply to the legal sector.
Closer Client Relationships
Strategic use of IT can help build closer client relationships in a number of ways. There is the obvious benefit of being able to provide a faster, more efficient service that responds quickly to the client. But there are additional, value-added possibilities that go much further.
To begin with, clients themselves are becoming increasingly sophisticated users of technology. Therefore, they naturally expect to be able to deal with their legal advisers in the same ways that they deal with other service suppliers — through email, secure online access and even text messaging.
Practices need to plan for ways to deliver traditional services to their clients in the client’s preferred format. Examples of such services include the provision of online instructions, financial, billing and case progress reports.
Beyond this, there are opportunities to deliver services in a new way and to make relevant use of collaborative working tools, secure information sharing and ultimately the re-use of a firm’s knowledge to add value to clients.
New Models of Legal Service Delivery: Online Legal Service
The rapid commercial development of the Internet and other information technologies is providing a vehicle for lawyers to trade legal services and to even deliver some services in their entirety. Importantly, this capability also provides clients with the facility to seek the best advice wherever it is located.
This approach to technology can also unlock a Practice’s potential to deliver services in an entirely new way and develop new services for the future. Areas could include the brokering of legal services and partnering with household names to deliver branded services.
Technology undeniably forms a key component in supporting the delivery of excellent legal advice now and in meeting the challenges posed by the potential opening up of the legal market in the future.
Keeping Abreast with Latest Changes in Law & Profession
In legal profession the lawyer has to be well versed and prudent in the practice of law. It is essential that he knows the latest change in the legal subject of his practice and thus updates his knowledge with changing situation.
In this case, Internet can play a very crucial role in legal practice as far latest information is concerned for the lawyer. There are many sites available on Internet which provide updated information in the legal field and particularly the latest information about the laws and the changes/amendments.
Exploitation of Intellectual Capital
To ensure the survival and retention of a Law Practice’s knowledge or intellectual capital it is given that IT systems support methods to collect, organize and exploit Practice information. In this way, information can be held centrally and made available, with the Practice being further protected should key people leave.
Such an approach typically involves a knowledge management system that captures information, organizes it in a structured way and is easy for users to search and navigate.
E-mail in Legal Practice
The Internet has created what may in fact be the biggest advent in communications since the invention of electronic mail. Email, as it is commonly known, has revolutionized the way we as a society communicate, especially the way corporate America communicates.
The legal practitioner can use the Internet as an efficient tool for both internal and external communication. The Internet has defined a common communication interface for firms as well. The popularity of Web browsers and the advent of standard communications have made it easier to organize and consolidate internal and external communications.
Philip Leith, author of “The Computerised Lawyer”, recognizes the intimate relationship between the law and information technology and does recognize the transformation potential of information technology.
We can only expect that Internet use will continue to grow at an unprecedented rate. The trends in Internet use reflect that we can predict that online research will change the way lawyers conduct business. In short, Information Technology represents “the wave of the future in the practice of law.”