The justice sector, like every other, uses more technology now than at any time in history. What can sometimes be seen as an old fashioned and creaky industry in fact has adapted enormously, especially during the COVID pandemic, to using technology to help or to replace traditional methods of operating.

There is an entire “LawTech” sector dedicated to making the law work more smoothly through the use of technology, whether that be by reducing the paperwork or length of sometimes laborious processes, enabling communication between the parties involved or making it easier to find relevant case law that may impact a verdict.

Many years ago, documents had to be physically printed on paper, and signed (and witnessed) in person, and then slowly and expensively sent by post or courier to the next recipient. The use of email alone has removed thousands of pages of printed matter from the law sector, simple technology like DocuSign to sign digitally and share has saved a lot of trees, as has the ability to scan and store documents, manage access and workflow between them within an organisation’s secure network.

Gone are the days of law students spending hours wading through old case law to find something to arm them to win a case. Government legislation is available freely and easily online, and there are vast (paid) searchable legal databases like Lexis and Westlaw to help law professionals to find relevant judgements and documentation.

During the heights of the COVID-19 pandemic, when courts were physically closed, in-person meetings between solicitors and clients, and attendance of court cases was impossible, the sector managed to operate using videoconferencing like many other sectors, using Microsoft Teams, Zoom or similar, with some inevitably funny stories such as the US judge inadvertently using a cat filter emerging as a result.

In addition to technology that impacts all business sectors, there are law specific developments that we embrace here at Hab Law. There is a wealth of information available online, whether that be basic law advice from Citizen’s Advice, applying online for the Small Claims Court, and there is online access to the Dispute Resolution Ombudsman, which aims to resolve issues without going to court at all.

Whatever your need, you can be sure that HAB Law will use the best technology available to us to make processes as quick and as painless as possible, protect your privacy and ease the burden for all involved.