Can artificial intelligence ease legal aid pressure points? Greg Wildisen puts the case for technology
Legal aid was introduced in 1949. At that time nearly 80% of British people were eligible. Recently there have been hefty cuts to the system with another £220m expected to be cut each year until 2018. There is also a hike in the number of people seeking free legal assistance, with some pro bono organisations recording a 50% increase in requests for assistance in 2014–15. This leaves legal aid practitioners with the challenge of having to do more with less—less legal experts available to provide advice, and fewer resources to help with the growing demand to “push paper” around an inefficient system.
Artificial intelligence (AI), often referred to as cognitive computing, takes many forms, but most can be conveniently grouped into three broad areas: robotics; machine learning; and smart apps, previously referred to as expert systems.
Smart apps are technologies that connect complex content and expert analysis of that content to provide precise, immediate answers. These systems rather than being probabilistic in outcome, are determinative, in that they provide a specific
