I have previously spoken about the pace of legal change and the problem that represents for tackling global threats like fake news and hacking. Something needs to be done because the whole legal system is no longer fit for purpose. It is slow to create law and slow to enforce it (where jurisdiction can even be found).
The speed of legal process is also an issue. My mother-in-law was knocked over by a 4×4-wielding 21 year old in a parking lot nearly 18 months ago. She is 72 and has suffered a very nasty fracture of her leg resulting in numerous surgeries and has been incapacitated since. She has not been given any recompense even though both the driver and the owners of the parking lot in which she was hit and run over (literally – the front wheel of the vehicle was parked on her leg at one point) have admitted liability. Instead, the insurance companies of those two entities are battling something out while her idle lawyer seems to do nothing to intervene. Meanwhile, she is required to pay for all of her medical bills in advance (she is on a state pension) and claim back. This has involved countless delays while the insurance company disputes whether these costs relate to previous ailments she has had. And my mother-in-law has very little recourse but to wait it out. Naturally, it’s all very distressing for her as she tries to heal.
Given this additional personal context to my frustrations with the legal system, I read with glee about Joshua Browder who has created a suite of AI (chat)bots with the aim of helping the person in the street deal with the system more efficiently.
Mr Browder originally started his company, DoNotPay, to automate appeals against parking tickets in London, but he has since grown the company both in terms of geography and of the range of legal applications of his bots. He now has grander designs on other commonly procedural-driven proceedings such as divorces, and other actors in the process like insurance companies.
The DoNotPay interface allows you to put in your legal problem in plain English and your request redirects you to the right bot. It’s a consumer-grade legal service that Mr Browder wishes to scale to help you take on the big guys. At an MIT Technology Review conference this week, he said
“The main use would be for taking down corporations…Traditionally, the powerful have used the legal system to intimidate people, but similarly, everyone—normal people—could use the legal system to intimidate corporations.”
At the moment, his application only covers legal procedures in the US and the UK, but it’s surely just a matter of time before we see similar ideas popping up in Australia (where my mother-in-law lives), and for a broader range of applications.
Did I mention that Mr Browder is 20 years old? He has many years ahead of him to refine his disruptive ideas. The legal profession should be very worried about what this sort of application of AI means for the industry, and how the generation coming of age today will reshape 19th and 20th century constructs to be suitable for our 21st century world.