Robert Spicer & Polly Lord issue a riposte to the legal industry’s current rush to IT
We are currently experiencing significant pressure by academic lawyers and information technology companies towards the increased computerisation of the English legal system. This rush to IT ignores the reality of everyday legal practice, particularly with reference to vulnerable clients. It can display an astonishing ignorance of human relationships in general and workplace issues in particular. The rush appears to be based on the assumption that clients are computer-literate, that hardware and software function perfectly, that computers have caused them no harm and that the electricity will keep flowing.
The client’s interests
The key question in this context is: “What is in the best interests of the client?”
Of course, it is clearly in the client’s interests to be charged for half an hour’s internet research into relevant statutes and cases, rather than half a day’s hard copy library research. But this is only a very small part of serving the client’s interests.
To take the example of a fairly typical client in a public access employment law practice.
