Intersection Between Law and Technology

If a business cannot reinvent in order to adapt to market changes, there is a big possibility that it will reduce the workload and be overwhelmed by others that are better at adapting to the new environment.
This view is no less true for law offices and companies.

As the banking industry is “attacked” with the development of technology and the emergence of fin tech products, the emergence of legal tech products will affect the work of lawyers.

Questions that arise are whether these products will reduce the quality of service compared to tailor made advocacy advice and how customers will trust their lawyers if their personal interaction is partially replaced by technology.

However, these products aim to increase the quality of the work of the lawyers themselves. They will reduce the time spent on technical things that take extra concentration.

The main motive is automating things that can be automated. At the core of legal tech products are the attempt to make technologically oriented and standardized legal services for well-understood problems that appear on a daily basis and that are present on a large scale. Lawyers will only make inspection and intervene if there is an exception.

Startup product which is an example of the application of artificial intelligence in law offices:

The entry of legal tech in continental law

On the world market, this type of products is mostly developed in the United States and the United Kingdom, because they have a common law system.

However, 3-4 years ago this kind of product began to appear in European countries.

Today in the Republic of Germany products are developed that offer compensation services due to delayed or canceled flights (flightright), termination of mortgage contracts and bank right delinquency (bankright), objecting on transcripts and offenses for fast driving(geblitzt), compensation on a canceled train (bahn-buddy).

Beginning in 2013, the Republic of Finland has developed legal tech products that generate pre-loaded leasing contracts (lebonbail), platforms that offer personalized legal advice (lawcracy и legalstart), platforms that facilitate search through the labyrinths of law (doctrine), etc.

What is Civic Tech and Technology Regulation?

The implementation of e-cadastre in the Republic of Macedonia, e-CRMM, e-procurement as well as implementation of other technologies through state institutions are examples of civic tech. Civic tech is technology (mainly IT) that enables engagement or participation of the public sector in a society that contributes to better development, improvement of communication between institutions and citizens, and general improvement of the public good.

A third branch that is related to technology and law is the regulation of new trends.

This section includes solutions that regulate the protection of personal data through online data exchange, blockchain technology and cyto-latency regulation, cyber bullying regulation, etc.

When compared, all three branches (legaltech, civictech as well as regulation of new technology) find one similarity between them, that is, each one of them represents an intersection between law and technology.

All three aim to advance society and improve life. Although they begin to appear in a different legal system from ours (the United States and the United Kingdom), a few years ago they began to develop into the continental law (the legal system that the Republic of Macedonia has) and take on bigger swing.