Legal Chatbots: A Challenge or an Opportunity for Legal Industry Leaders?
By Laura Hyde Page
It’s clear where people are placing their bets. This year, legal chatbots received $170 million from private investors, more than six times the amount of innovation the entire California Court system received. They’re a bold new path for those who want to see access to justice improved.
In an attempt to keep up with demand, legal chatbots have evolved at a rapid pace. Perhaps most famously, Joshua Bowder’s idea for Donotpay, a legal chatbot to help people dispute parking tickets, came to him at age 18 when challenging his own fines. Realizing that the nature of the advice he needed was somewhat formulaic, he sat down and in three hours had written the code for a program which has seen 175,000 successful users, saving UK and New York motorists an estimated $5 million.
Like Joshua, others have taken up the cause. For example, Stanford’s Codex FutureLaw conference provided an opportunity to hear from the founders of Visabot, a chatbot that has helped over 50,000 people with their visa applications as well as the founder of Hilbert, a chatbot in-progress helping people with healthcare advice. There’s no doubt that the founders of these legal chatbots have the best intentions when it comes to improved access to justice. With healthcare debts still the number one cause of bankruptcy in America and visa stress continuing to make headlines, the legal industry has moved slowly to address the growing need for affordable advice.
Rather than ignore legal chatbots, here are a few key ways that legal leaders can take advantage of this access-to-justice revolution:
1. Be prepared to help when things go wrong
When it comes to disputing a parking fine, for most people, the stakes are pretty low. But the same can’t be said for a visa application or healthcare advice. And while it could be argued that advice from a chatbot is better than no legal advice at all, there is also a possibility that they can do more harm than good. At some point, like all other areas of law, a chatbot will give advice that is bad enough to warrant a legal remedy. Lawyers who are able to find a way to dialogue with the chatbot users will be the first call should things go wrong. This is easier said that done, given chatbot users are probably avoiding lawyers for a reason.
2. Work with chatbot founders to improve the experience
One of the biggest design challenges with legal chatbots is in providing users with an opportunity to compare multiple pieces of advice. For example, during a visa application there might be two possible application methods, A and B. Method A is cheaper and faster, but gives you a shorter visa. Method B is longer and more expensive, but gives you a longer visa. So far, a chatbot can help you with this problem. But what if method A allows you to renew your visa, but method B doesn’t? And what if your local visa office is actually being consolidated and fast-tracking renewals, but not new applications? What if you just finished a degree which means the visa you need now might be different to the one you need in a year’s time? These are the kind of variables that can potentially confound chatbots. Once you are set down the path of method A, the chatbot can’t show you what method B would have given you. And without the option of going backwards to change part of your response, it can be very hard to evaluate your advice. Lawyers can provide an invaluable service by working with chatbot designers to ensure that information is presented in a way that is both accurate and clarifying. Collaboration would also give lawyers a voice in the design process, increasing opportunities for users to be guided to a person when they find themselves in a grey area.
3. Rescuing users from bad chatbot advice
Aside from the obvious question of liability when things go wrong, users of legal chatbots need to be aware that a burden is being placed on them to comprehend their own evidence. If you don’t fully understand that the letter in front of you constitutes notice, how can you answer the question ‘have you being notified?’ Get the answer wrong and it’s your fault if it leads you down the wrong track. A lawyer, on the other hand, can evaluate the evidence put in front of them, explain it to their client, share the pros and cons of different paths forward, and help you make decisions. Even in situations which seem formulaic on the surface, there are often nuances that can seriously affect the outcome. For lawyers, there is an opportunity here to generate new kinds of revenue through legal chatbot support services. By providing a flat fee for discreet pieces of advice relating to chatbots, or even developing a chatbot in house that guides users to real lawyers, if and when needed, they can be a part of the solution.
While access to justice has been an issue within the legal industry for a long time, it seems that the age of legal-technology is finally helping to fill the gap. While there are enormous benefits to users it’s undeniable that they face inherent risks. For lawyers who have struggled to find a way to improve access to justice, it seems an opportunity might finally be here.
