Abstract –

The technological paradigm has given rise to the concept of Artificial Intelligence (AI) This paper deals with the scope of Artificial Intelligence in the field of law in the 21st century and also sheds light upon how the growing advancements in technology is assisting professionals in their legal fields. AI is a buzz word amongst the legal professionals as it is playing a significant role for lawyers, legal researchers and law firms. This paper further explores the advantages as well as the challenges of incorporating Artificial Intelligence in the legal profession and the uses of AI in law; it also discusses the scope and impact of AI technology on the Judicial System of India. The paper further touches upon the subject of how the growing technology will change the face of future law firms and lastly it discusses whether AI will replace lawyers or not.

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, technological paradigm, advantages and challenges of incorporating AI, artificial intelligence in legal profession.

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INTRODUCTION

MEANING OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a term which was coined by the father of AI – John McCarthy. The Oxford Dictionary defines Artificial Intelligence as “ the theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence, such as visual perception ,speech recognition, decision-making, and translation between languages[1]” Simply put, AI is a broad branch of computer science wherein the goal is to create systems which can function independently and intelligently One can say that it is an intelligent machine which has the ability to think, understand and act on its own and also has the skill to replicate certain human behaviour. Therefore, Artificial Intelligence is a machine which has the capability and ability to solve problems that are usually tackled by us humans with our natural intelligence. To elaborate further, the purpose behind the development of AI is the requirement as well as the demand for automation in this high paced life of humans. The monotonous tasks or even complex tasks and are now being performed by utilizing the AI technology. 

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN INDIAN LEGAL PROFESSION

From using the typewriters to now using a computer, from using only libraries for legal research to using online portals for finding relevant case laws, from fax machines to emails, each advancement has been transformative in the field of law. Now it’s time for AI to enter the field of law. The legal services market is one of the largest in the world, but at the same time it is also said to be under-digitized in its working. The field of law is very traditional in its approach and slow in adapting to new tools. It’s time that we acknowledge the fact that Artificial Intelligence possess the capabilities to change the manner in which lawyers currently operate and the way law is looked at in India. Technology is of relevance in so far as it promotes- efficiency, transparency and objectivity in public governance – as humbly stated by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, he threw light upon the idea that AI is not there to replace the judges or the human mind but it is present in order to provide a facilitative tool to the judges in order to recheck or reassess the work, the process and the judgements. The prime goal being to ultimately provide a wider access to justice to the common people.

The primary step taken for India’s Artificial Intelligence framework was the AI Task Force Report, in order to study artificial intelligence in depth. This task force was set up by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry headed by the Chairman of Tata Sons N. Chandrasekaran for analyzing the financial advantages of using AI and to see how it will benefit India.[2] The Task force stated its vision “To embed AI in our Economic, Political and Legal thought processes so that there is systematic capability to support the goal of India becoming one of the leaders of AI-rich economies”.

The Indian legal profession is such that the whole process is manually done as the nature of the legal industry is still said to be tilted towards being labour intensive. Hence, AI is at its early stages as most of the older generation advocates are of the opinion that technology should not be used extensively as it might take over man and thus shy away from the idea of AI in law. Having said that, there are many tech-savvy lawyers, as well as big law firms which are utilizing the advancements in the field of technology to the fullest in order to have an edge over others. We all know that the Indian legal system is vast, our Constitution alone being the lengthiest in the whole world, hence with changing times it’s essential to cope with the dynamic environment with the usage of AI in law. Using machine learning technology by lawyers in the field of legal research can help them to get an unparalleled insight into the legal domain within a few seconds. One such firm being Cyril Armarchand and Mangaldas who has acknowledged the AI powers and is also embracing it with enthusiasm. CAM has made history by being the first Indian law firm to give license to “Kira”, which is a Canada based machine learning software built by Kira Systems. This AI based software is capable of doing many things and thus saves the long man-hours. “Kira” system is being used for analyzing legal documents, identifying and spotting any risk areas and it also used for extracting clauses from various legal documents.

USES AND ADVANTAGES OF AI IN LEGAL PROFESSION

With the advancement in the field of AI technology, it has reduced the long man-hours which were earlier required to do the tiresome work of going through hefty paperwork which is required to be done by lawyers. There are various ways by which the legal industry can benefit by using the AI technology to its advantage in order to reap out the maximum benefits.

Some highlights of the ways in which AI technology is helping out law firms and lawyers and proving to be a boon for the legal industry are discussed below:

• Legal Research Work:

Legal research requires long hours and can also get monotonous due to its complex nature, and keeping in mind the tight deadlines most law firms require to meet they need a quick and accurate legal research work. This challenge is met by using AI software which can significantly improve the efficiency and accuracy; it reduces time as with one click AI provides relevant case laws which can be beneficial for assisting judges in order to deliver speedy judgements. ROSS Intelligence is one such company which employs machine run software to review contract documents quickly and also reviews them; the software also highlights relevant documents. Therefore, with the usage of correct software legal research can be optimized and can greatly improve the efficiency as well.

• Due Diligence:

Due diligence process requires long number of working hours by legal practitioners as they are required to review multiple legal documents. Converting and organization of all such important documents is surely a cumbersome process and takes in a long time. However, with the availability of AI solutions, the tedious work of due diligence can be handled much more quickly and with more accuracy. With the help of machine learning technology, studies prove that AI systems have shown to do the work of reviewing legal documents much faster and with accuracy. Kira systems is one such company which accurately carries out the due diligence checks, it is far quicker than reviewing it manually.

• Reduce Costs and Increase Productivity:

AI can help in streamlining the legal department by automating tasks and processes. In order to fully utilize the potential of AI, the in-house lawyers should start using the software as it can be a useful tool, it can help to reduce costs, it can aid in coming up with new strategies, AI software can detect and reduce the contract risks and thus deliver a more efficient and better service. It is important to use the best AI contract review software. Company called eBrevia- developed with assistance from the Columbia University aims to apply machine learning and tools like natural language processing, software driven by AI to minimize the time spent on reviewing contracts and the goal is to speed up the research and review process.

• Analysis of Legal Documents:

The AI software can detect important patterns and can help in figuring out the correlations it can help legal practitioners in their case by furnishing judgements and also precedent law which can be used by them. AI can review bulk contracts efficiently and much faster than humans.

• Electronic Billing:

Legal software used in AI technology is used for the preparation of invoices for the lawyers according to the work carried out by them. This helps the firm and the lawyer to decipher the accurate billing of the work done by the legal practitioner.

CHALLENGES OF AI IN LAW

1. Not completely accepted by legal professionals:

Artificial intelligence in law is still at its infant stage when we look India. Lawyers are reluctant to use this technology and fear that it will have a toll on employment. They dread that technology would take over a lawyer or a legal clerk’s bread and butter and would ultimately lead more cases of unemployment in the country. Most senior legal practitioners shy away from changing their habits and want to stick to their traditional way of practicing without using AI.

1. Legal Personality of AI is Not Defined:

The legal personality of artificial intelligence is not clearly defined anywhere in our law, robots are complex in nature and thus it becomes difficult to ascertain whether ordinary laws and rules would be applicable in the same manner or not. Therefore, until the rights and obligations of AI driven machines and tools become clear it would continue to cause confusion since the current legal framework does not hold a robot responsible for its acts or omissions per se.

• Lack of Proper Systems and Data:

Machine learning is based on the algorithms which are fed in the computer systems and on the basis of that the machine acts. One of the major barriers in using AI technology in the case of India is that, there is outdated technology and machines which are being used, the data is often not complete and unless huge chunk of reliable data is provided to the machine it will not be able to perform accurately.[3]

• Costly:

The AI machines are sophisticated machine systems capable of learning and acting on its own, this also calls for huge amount of investment in terms of money. Mostly such AI driven machines are produced by foreign companies, this further makes it difficult for small and midsized law firms to get their hands on the only big law firms are able to afford them.

• Privacy and Protection of Personal Data:

It is essential that the AI driven machine learning robots are developed in such a manner which keeps the private data of the parties involved safe and secure. Since machine learning works on huge amount of data it becomes all the more essential that, the legal framework is such which provides protection that the data will not be misused, confidentiality must be maintained and a fair due process needs to be followed, a security layer to check breach of privacy must be done.

NITI Ayog in 2018 released a paper called “National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence” this policy paper considered the importance of AI which can be used in various sectors in India, in the 2019 Budget it also put forward the idea of launching a national programme on AI.[4] Even though all these advancements took place in the technological fronts, there is still no effective legislation which regulates and controls the AI industry in India.

AI RELATED START-UPS AND THEIR IMPACT

• Spot Draft:

This is an AI based start-up by Shashank Bijapur, who is a Harvard Law School alumni and Madhav Bhagat an ex-Google employee. This AI driven business has the ability to scrutinise legal documents and it reduces the paperwork by giving the customers an option to create business contracts. This revolutionary platform offers its clients an option to draft and sign contracts it also has features of automatic reminders and payments.

• CaseMine:

This is a legal research platform. This start-up aims at using AI technology in order to draw links between different case laws and thus makes it simpler for the legal researcher to have an in depth and comprehensive research.

• CaseIQ:

This machine learning software acts like a legal assistant in researching case laws, it also analyses the legal language and works like an assistant by pointing out any potential points of law which might be missing, suggests alternative arguments, highlights relevant judgements and case laws for a comprehensive legal research.

• NearLaw:

This Mumbai based start-up offers AI based solutions to legal practitioners and law firms. NearLaw is said to be using NLP technologies to assist in legal matters by understanding case rankings.

• Practice League:

This is a Pune based legal tech law firm which has used AI capabilities to transform the working model for more than 8,000 lawyers. Reports highlight that this firm is working with tech giants like Google and Amazon in order to weave AI abilities into its working solutions.

IMPACT OF AI ON INDIAN JUDICIAL SYSTEM:

When we look at the Indian judicial system, there exists judicial delays the judiciary is over burdened with more than 3 crore pending cases which leads to unwanted delays in providing justice to the people and as the saying goes- justice delayed is indeed justice denied. Therefore, various measures are being taken up to improve the current condition like reducing the vacation duration, increasing the strength of the judges but it’s time to do more than this and that is where the role of Artificial Intelligence comes into play.[5] There are various cases registered every year which are of similar nature thus, Judiciary requires data science and AI which have the ability of assisting the judges by using predictive technology which helps in availability of vital information about the ongoing cases based on previous case of similar nature. Analysis done by AI can aid judges in speedy judgement delivery. Studies show that the role of AI can be very useful at the evidence stage, as it is a vital stage of any case it also takes up a huge amount of court’s time, multiple delays are a common feature of this stage for various reasons such as delay because of Investigation in-charge, absence of witnesses etc. the role of AI technology in such cases would be of predicting potential delays and this would aid the judges as they would have knowledge beforehand about the causes for above mentioned delays in certain similar kind of cases eg; murder. This predictive technology will be useful as the judges would be able to handle the load of each case accordingly, it can also help the judges to take proactive measures to prevent the witnesses from turning hostile by granting them extra police protection.

One of the major developments which recently took place was that the Chief Justice of India S.A. Bobde, recently said in an even that “We have a possibility of developing Artificial Intelligence for court system. Only for the purpose of ensuring that the undue delay in justice is prevented” He also made it clear that AI will not be replacing human discretion or judges. Sharing more insights he further stated that “It is only the repetitive, mathematical and the mechanical parts of the judgements for which help can be taken from the machine learning system…we are exploring the possibility of implementing it”.[6]

This is certainly one of the biggest highlights that the Chief Justice of India himself is of the view that using AI technology in law and judicial system will reap out benefits. Indian Judicial system will greatly benefit from it if its gets implemented with proper legal framework stating rules and regulations.

RECENT GROWTH OF AI IN JUDICIAL DOMAIN

• Supreme Court Vidhik Anuvaad Software (SUVAS):

The Supreme Court of India has launched an official AI driven application which is specially created by using machine assisted translation technology trained by AI. The primary focus of this app is to translate English legal documents and Orders into 9 vernacular languages. This is the very first step taken by our judiciary to include AI in Legal domain.

• Multilingual Official Mobile app. of Supreme Court of India:

The apex court of our country with assistance of the National Informatics Centre has launched an app which would provide the citizens with the authentic access to the display board, cases, daily orders, judgements, important circulars and much other vital information with just a click.

• E-courts:

This is one of the most important developments done by the judicial reforms it has made a huge impact in terms of saving time, energy and money as all the important data regarding judgments, court orders is available online at zero cost for the users.[7]

• IIT-Kharagpur developed AI system to read legal orders:

Researchers at IIT Kharagpur have come up with an AI aided technology which can read orders and judgements and it also possess the ability to highlight the laws which are being violated, all this is being done via machine learning technology.

WILL AI REPLACE LAWYERS?

Artificial Intelligence is used to facilitate the working of lawyers by reducing their load and not to replace them. There is a big misconception among many legal practitioners and firms that AI would take over the lawyers, but it is certainly not possible because even though a machine learning tool can aid in research, contract review and predicting certain aspects with desired data but it certainly cannot take over tasks like giving advice to clients, negotiating terms, arguing in front of the judges, all these essential activities will always be performed by lawyers and no machine can replace them. As correctly stated by our Chief Justice that AI is their to aid lawyers and judges for a speedy delivery of justice and can never replace them.[8]

In fact, AI has reduced the burden on lawyers so that they can focus their mind on other important aspects, thus it has made them more productive and efficient. The emergence of AI will actually create more job opportunities of data analytics, thus the notion that technology is taking away jobs is negated, rather it is actually creating new opportunities for us.

USE OF TECHNOLOGY AND AI DURING COVID-19 IN LAW

The pandemic caused due to the highly infection disease coronavirus has taken a toll on the lives of people. In context of law, it has most certainly made the lawyers and judges realize the importance of technology and the need of using AI and machine learning software to get the work done. Since social distancing has led to a lockdown situation the courts are taking up only urgent matters via video conferencing methods and e- filing of legal documents as per the order passed by the Supreme Court.[9] The Apex Court in the case of Swapnil Tripathi v. Supreme Court of India has itself recognized the principle of live streaming of proceeding except certain cases like rape, matrimonial cases etc.[10]

“The wheels of justice cannot be halted because of lockdown” as correctly pointed out by Justice Sikhri, delivery of justice also comes under essential services and during the time of Covid-19 technology has played a vital role from e-filing, e-payment of court fee etc. Delhi High Court has even took a step forward by setting up e-rooms by making some court rooms entirely paperless, and one can check their case details on their online portal. Thus, given the situation we all are in, technology is the only friend who is here to stay for a long time, it’s time to embrace the advancements in technological fields including AI and move towards the path of development.

CONCLUSION

Advancement in technology has surely changed the outlook of the legal industry, it can be concluded that AI in the field of law proves to have many advantages, it has aided legal professionals in brisk research work, with its predictive technology it can assist judges in decision making process, it is useful for law firms for due diligence work, collection of data etc. which makes their work more efficient and quicker ,machine learning technology saves time, it is accurate and has effective results . Even though AI has multiple advantages but it cannot not replace lawyers, it can assist them in certain areas of work but AI lacks strategic thinking, it is not creative like humans, it lacks the ability to improvise in front of a judge, robots don’t possess emotional intelligence and feeling of empathy. Inclusion of AI in the legal industry has many challenges ahead of itself, some of them being- it is still prone to a lot of risks thus we need a proper legal framework in order to regulate Artificial Intelligence to prevent it from misusing their client’s data . The complete inclusion of AI in legal industry will be possible only once we have legal framework governing its actions to minimize the risks attached with it, only then we would be able to reap out maximum benefits of AI. To safeguard the inclusion of AI, we need to have a fair and balanced approach, few suggestions include- 1) A strong regulatory framework is required to be drafted which clearly states out the obligations and liabilities of this intelligent machine, 2) accountability factor needs to be paid attention to, in order to control its actions 3) stronger data protection laws are needed to protect privacy. Thus, the solution is not to take a back seat and shy away from the technological advancements but to embrace it and use AI to our advantage by having required legislations in place to safeguard the interests of its users.

REFERENCES

[1] https://www.lexico.com/definition/artificial_intelligence (last accessed on 15 May 2020)

[2] Pranav Mukul, Task force set up to study AI application in military, INDIAN EXPRESS (accessed on May 15th 2020.)

https://indianexpress.com/article/technology/tech-news-technology/task-force-setup-to-study-ai-application-in-military-5049568/

[3] Mathew U. Scherer, “Regulating AI System” Harvard Journal of Law & Technology Volume 29, Number 2 Spring 2016.

[4] National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence, NITI AYOG (June 2018)

[5] Gaurav Banerjee “AI as a way forward in Judicial Analytics” Daksh India, May 18, 2019

[6] Editorial, “Apex court is exploring the possibility of adopting AI” The Hindu, Jan 12, 2020, 1:18 PM.

[7] E-courts services available at, https://services.ecourts.gov.in/ecourtindia_v6/ (last visited on May 15th, 2020)

[8] Supreme Court Guidelines for Court functioning through videoconferencing during Covid-19 Pandemichttps://main.sci.gov.in/supremecourt/2020/10853/10853_2020_0_1_21588_Judgement_06- Apr- 2020.pdf (last visited on May 15, 2020)

[9] Ibid.

[10] Swapnil Tripathi v. Supreme Court of India, 2018 SCC Online SC 1667

Authored By:

PALLAVI KAPUR

Student of Law, Amity Law School, Noida

Disclaimer: This article has been published in Legal Desire International Journal on Law, ISSN 2347-3525 , Issue 22, Vol 7