In Legal Services
The role of automation technology in the production of legal documents has been widely recognised. For example, Richard Susskind’s book ‘The End of Lawyers’ looks at the use of document automation software that enables clients to generate employment contracts and Wills with the use of an online interview or decision tree. Susskind regards Document Assembly as one of 10 'disruptive technologies' that are altering the face of the legal profession. In large law firms document assembly systems are increasingly being used to systemise work, such as complex term sheets and the first drafts of credit agreements.
With the liberalisation of the UK legal services market spearheaded by the Legal Services Act 2007 large institutions have broadened their services to include legal assistance for their customers. Most of these companies use some element of document automation technology to provide legal document services over the Web. This has been seen as heralding a trend towards commoditisation whereby technologies like document automation result in high volume, low margin legal services being ‘packaged’ and provided to a mass-market audience.
Read more about this topic: Document Automation
Famous quotes containing the words legal and/or services:
“We should stop looking to law to provide the final answer.... Law cannot save us from ourselves.... We have to go out and try to accomplish our goals and resolve disagreements by doing what we think is right. That energy and resourcefulness, not millions of legal cubicles, is what was great about America. Let judgment and personal conviction be important again.”
—Philip K. Howard, U.S. lawyer. The Death of Common Sense: How Law Is Suffocating America, pp. 186-87, Random House (1994)
“The community and family networks which helped sustain earlier generations have become scarcer for growing numbers of young parents. Those who lack links to these traditional sources of support are hard-pressed to find other resources, given the emphasis in our society on providing treatment services, rather than preventive services and support for health maintenance and well-being.”
—Bernice Weissbourd (20th century)