AI “could help allocate work to conveyancers”

Artificial intelligence (AI) is being developed for “triage and work allocation” in law firms and particularly for conveyancers, a director of the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has said.

Chris Handford, director of regulatory policy at the SRA, also said he had been told by a family lawyer that AI and algorithms could help persuade clients that they should not pursue their cases to court.

Mr. Handford said he had spoken to people developing products for use in conveyancing which could identify “where the complex cases are” and “where you might need the expertise of your more senior caseworkers”, or “where there are particular risks, so you need greater control”.

AI could also, “taking it all the way through”, identify “areas where your fee-earners need training”.

Speaking at a recent SRA panel discussion in Manchester on the practical challenges and opportunities of technology and AI, Mr. Handford said he had spoken to legal regulators in Australia who told him AI was being used to create financial settlements in divorce proceedings, work that “used to take paralegals weeks to do”.

Mr. Handford went on:

“Because the parties are used to sharing data in a secure way, this is now being done in days, using automation.”

Mr. Handford also spoke to a family lawyer “who was exploring the idea of using AI to help persuade parties who felt hard done by that court was not the right answer and would not give them the outcome that they want”.

The lawyer had done research with clients which found that, if you could tell them about AI and an algorithm showing them that they would not get the outcome they wanted by going to court, that “holds sway with quite a lot of them” and could help to change attitudes.

Mr. Handford said “one of the biggest issues raised” when the SRA talked to people about AI was the question of insurance.

Mr. Handford continued:

“There are some challenges in the insurance sector, and everyone is trying to work out what the risks are.”

The SRA had been “in the room” for discussions among insurers, brokers and law firms “about how things might develop over time”.

Mr. Handford added:

“There isn’t an answer to this at the moment.

“Everyone is trying to work it out.”

Meanwhile Jon Bartman, a consultant and co-founder of the European Legal Technology Association, said he was seeing two or three new legal tech solutions “every week” and it was “such an exciting time” for law firms of any size.

Mr. Bartman said it used to be the case that you “needed to be in a really big firm” to adopt technology, but he had recently worked with a number of law firms of between 10 and 40 fee-earners. “There is technology that is right for you.”

Mr. Handford agreed that “more and more” small law firms were interested in using AI, but there were barriers, such as whether they had the technical knowledge, whether they could see the benefits and whether they could afford it.