Kuhlmann N (2017) Hacking.Law – Germany`s first Legal Tech hackathon #berlinlegaltech2017. legal-tech-blog.de/hacking-law-deutschlands-erster-legal-tech-hackathon-berlinlegaltech2017. Retrieved 21.10.2017 But perhaps this intermediate step is skipped directly. Wikipedia has been experiencing a drop in traffic for some time. For specific individual questions, an entire article is no longer called, but simply Siri or Google Now. These voice-activated search engines then search the Wikipedia database, among other things, and communicate the search result directly to the questioner. The American legal technology start-up ROSS Intelligence is currently working on a comparable application for legal issues. Based on IBM`s Watson computer program, a search engine is being developed that is powered by large amounts of legal data and then makes it easier for lawyers to search. A comparable request for the non-lawyer is at least conceivable. Bues M-M, Matthaei E (2017) Legal technology on the rise – technology is changing legal work, but not replacing one`s profession.
In: Jacob K et al (eds) Liquid legal – transforming legal into a business savvy, information enabled and performance driven industry, 1st ed. Springer, Cham, pp. 89-109 In the United States, offers that support divorce on the web are also popular. With CompleteCase or Wevorce, the end of a wedding can be prepared on the Internet. The service providers accompany both spouses in the legally necessary steps and automatically create all the documents that must be submitted to the court. The fees are a fraction compared to divorce advised by a lawyer. There will be resistance to many of these offers. From a data protection perspective, some business models are a nightmare and the question of liability will arise. If the development in the United States can serve as a clue, there will be a wave of warnings and lawsuits in Germany due to an alleged violation of the Legal Services Act in relation to competition law.
In the United States, some of these cases have been resolved with the order to inform consumers that the service offered is not a substitute for the advice of a lawyer. It remains to be seen whether and how lawmakers will respond to the opportunities and dangers of legal technology. Documents. When entering into a contract or other legally relevant processes, appropriate documents are required. A written contract is currently uploaded to the Internet or drafted by a lawyer depending on the size of the business. Often one does not fit the specifics of the individual case, and creating the other costs time and money. Cabral JE (2012) Using technology to improve access to justice. Harv J Law Technol 2012:241-324 The area with the greatest potential for improvement is the discovery phase. In many situations, the legal dimension is obvious. After a traffic accident, most participants are aware that the legal consequences threaten.
But often, existing rights and obligations are not recognized and very few people always have a lawyer at their side who can give a corresponding clue. In the event of a malfunction of the heating in winter, for example, very few tenants immediately think of reducing the rent. If the purchased goods no longer work after a few months, most consumers do not think about the Warranty Act for material defects and certainly not about the reversal of the burden of proof according to § 476 BGB. Once a legal issue has been identified that cannot be resolved independently, a suitable lawyer must be found. The selection process is often unstructured and characterized by a significant information gap. Business directories and law firm homepages as well as advertising with areas of interest and titles of specialized lawyers increase transparency a bit. In the age of ubiquitous information technology, legal technology has the potential to fundamentally change participation in the legal system through new concepts – both in enabling and limiting terms. Seizing the associated opportunities while minimizing the dangers poses fundamentally new challenges for all actors. At the moment – metaphorically speaking – we are still in the phase where we mainly discuss faster horses and most people can`t even imagine the car yet. Fries M (2016) PayPal Law and Legal Tech – What does digitalization do to private law? NJW 2016:2860-2865 One of Michael Wrase`s research focuses on access to law. The judiciary has the right to be there for all citizens and to provide equal access regardless of factors such as income or origin.
In order to determine whether there are any barriers to accessing rights in Germany and what the barriers are, Wase collaborates with an interdisciplinary team. As with many subjects, there is not enough knowledge. In many ways, justice statistics are not very meaningful, so changes in the judicial system (such as the current decline in proceedings) often cannot be really justified. Access to justice can be divided into three phases according to Richard Susskind`s client service chain. Recognition of the existence of a legally relevant fact (recognition), selection of the problem solver (selection) and actual service (service). The gap between the two is currently being bridged by computer-generated document providers. In the United States, the online portal LegalZoom provides this service with great success. Over the past 10 years, the internet company has had over two million customers and is now more well-known than any law firm. In Germany, this business idea has been implemented by Smartlaw since 2012. Individuals, owners and contractors have access to a large number of contracts and legal declarations. These are automatically tailored to individual needs after the relevant data has been provided. The computer-generated document is relatively inexpensive and can be printed and used immediately.
As a bonus, the contract user is informed if the legal situation changes and the document needs to be adapted. Outside the home and car, the smartphone could become the ubiquitous legal whistleblower. Many things can already be detected thanks to the microphone and other sensors. In addition, he has access to online accounts and therefore to purchasing behavior on the Internet.