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THE USE OF COMPUTERS IN THE FIELD OF LAW

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The use of Computers in the field of Law

Introduction
Now more than ever, the practice of law relies upon electronic means. Lawyers use computers for
everything from marketing their services to conducting legal research to writing briefs and tracking
their time for billing purposes. Computers are also used to communicate using email. The traditional
image of a lawyer's job is that of a lawyer poring through stacks of paperwork. While paperwork still
is a reality, law practice has changed drastically in the past 20 years, mainly because of computer
technology. In firms large and small, the extensive use of computers is the norm.

Online Legal Research

One of the most important uses of computers in the legal profession is conducting legal research.
Many legal projects require extensive legal research, including references to previously decided
cases. Traditionally, companies such as West printed volumes of case law, requiring attorneys to
read through keyword indexes to find relevant cases. Now, online legal databases such as Lexis
Nexis and Westlaw make the process of searching for case law, legal forms and treatises much
easier.

Case Management Software

The increased use of computers in the legal workplace has changed the way firms are managed. For
example, client case tracking traditionally was done using a large calendar; cases now are tracked
electronically, which makes the danger of a missed court date or filing deadline less likely.
Meanwhile, software such as Abacus Law frequently is used to track billable hours, resulting in
more precise time accounting by attorneys and savings to clients, who are able to track the
attorney's work to the minute.

Electronic Discovery
Computers have changed the handling of legal discovery projects. Discovery is the process by
which opposing parties to law suit exchange relevant information such as police reports, financial
documents and witness testimony. Traditionally, discovered items were provided as photocopied
documents. In many cases, attorneys and support staff had to manually organize and sift through
thousands of paper documents looking for relevant information. In electronic discovery, important
legal documents are scanned and stored in computer systems. In addition to making document
exchanges easier, electronic discovery lets attorneys organize and examine the documents much
faster and more effectively.

Legal Marketing Online

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Increasingly, attorneys use computers and the Internet to obtain new clients. Many attorney
websites provide valuable general information such as explanations of legal rights and the legal
process. Some websites allow a potential client to directly email or chat with an attorney before

Scheduling a consultation. Lawyers also use social networking platforms to communicate with
current and prospective clients.

Communication via Email

Most modern law firms use email more than fax, which used to be the quickest way to send a letter.
Law firm emails combined with smart phones mean that attorneys always have access to their
communications and can stay on top of their cases.

Electronic Document Filing

All federal courts and many state courts now use the internet for all their case filings. Attorneys
need computers to access these online portals, where they can file lawsuits and any documents they
need to file within that lawsuit. Some jurisdictions will not permit licensed attorneys to file by
paper.

The Computer as an Aid to the Practicing Lawyer

 Computerized Legal Research: The topic most discussed when lawyers think of computers is
the computer as a tool for legal research. Take, for example, the house counsel of a major life
insurance company. He will find himself, with increasing frequency, asked to determine the
law applicable to a problem in each of the fifty states. Much of this law is statutory, but only
minimal effort is required to discover that there are almost as many methods of indexing
statutes as there are jurisdictions that enact them. The frustrations encountered in such a
situation where the genesis of the author's interest in the computer as a tool for a lawyer.
 The Computer as a Research Tool: The computer captures the imagination of many
researchers. It offers an opportunity to store vast quantities of data in a comparatively small
space, the ability to search this data very rapidly and make selections therefrom and the ability
to manipulate or "massage" the data to produce a result in a format particularly useful to the
individual researcher. One of the advantages frequently touted for computerized legal research
is the possibility of placing into the computer's storage area or memory banks the full text of
whatever document is someday to be retrieved.

 Other Computer Uses in Research: A larger law firm or a corporate law department can
develop a very valuable library of internally prepared memoranda on topics of particular
interest to the firm. Finding these, however, can sometimes be a difficult problem.
Computerized techniques are available to retrieve these memoranda and can be particularly
useful when the number of memoranda is large and the number of topics small.

 Data Representation & Analysis: Consolidated representation of ‘pendency’, ‘delay’, &

‘arrears’ data on charts, tables and Venn diagram. ‘Pendency’ therefore consists of the
universal set of cases which have been filed and not been disposed of, ‘backlog’ refers to the
difference between filing and disposal of cases in a given time period, ‘delay’ being a subset of

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‘pendency’ where a case has taken longer than the ‘normal time’ that it should take for disposal
of such a case, and ‘arrears’ being a further subset of ‘delay’ where the case has taken a longer
time and no ‘valid reasons’ explain the same. If it were to be represented as a Venn diagram, it
would be as shown in Figure A.

Figure A : Representation of ‘Pendency’, ‘Delay’, and ‘Arrears’ on Ven Diagram

The link between backlog and pendency can be understood with the help of diagram below in Figure
B. Of all the cases instituted in a given time period (say a month), some get disposed of and the
remaining enter the basket of pending cases through backlog. At the same time, some of the pendent
cases are also disposed of. With passing time, cases also enter the basket meant for delays and
eventually arrears. In defining the delayed cases, it is necessary to specify “normal times” for disposal.
These “normal times” could be specified as mandatory time limits or as guidelines. At present, such
time-frames do not exist for most categories of trials.

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Figure B: Flow of cases from Institution to disposal

In this report, pendency rate is defined as the ratio of total pending cases at the end of year to the
total cases registered in that year. Arrear rate is defined as the ratio of total cases in arrears to the
total pending cases. When a clear definition of normal times is not available, then cases older than
5 years are assumed to be in arrears.
Across the country, one in four cases (25%) are over five years old, as graphically represented in
Figure C. The number of cases that are over five years old continues to be alarming. The number
has increased from 43 lakhs in 2015 to 63 lakhs. If one considers that five years is beyond the
“normal time” for any type of case, then these are the arrears in lower judiciary. The situation in
Bihar, Odisha and Gujarat is of particular concern, as seen from Table 3.1. In these states, 35-40%

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of the registered cases are in the system for more than 5 years. The state-wise and age-wise data
of pending cases in Table A was collected from National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG).

Table A: Number of Pending Cases in Subordinate Courts by Age and State / UT

Cases Cases
pending pending Cases Cases Rate of
State / UT for less between 2 pending pending for Arrears
than to 5 years between 5 to over 10 years
2 years 10 years

Andaman And Nicobar 5,144 3,224 1,895 752 24%

1,28,869
Andhra Pradesh 2,60,581 48,808 8,564 13%

Assam 1,32,365 69,658 19,194 2,535 10%

Bihar 4,79,320 4,54,157 3,67,730 2,52,448 40%

Chandigarh 31,351 6,509 772 52 2%

Chhattisgarh 1,48,083 81,146 35,634 14,425 18%

Delhi 3,79,949 1,33,712 35,477 6,250 8%

Diu And Daman 812 364 184 48 16%

Dadra & Nagar Haveli 1,697 902 588 362 27%

Goa 25,895 11,974 4,059 2,093 14%

Gujarat 6,78,981 3,95,341 3,26,193 3,53,958 39%

Haryana 4,87,788 1,21,530 5,689 376 1%

Himachal Pradesh 1,06,690 62,476 18,814 696 10%

Jammu And Kashmir 20,282 22,580 24,852 9,355 44%

Jharkhand 1,40,515 1,22,513 60,412 12,304 22%

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Karnataka 7,63,934 4,23,407 1,45,449 25,375 13%

Kerala 7,21,130 2,85,229 66,262 8,784 7%

Madhya Pradesh 7,76,161 4,38,524 1,00,197 18,654 9%

Maharashtra 15,41,682 10,22,628 5,12,321 2,62,554 23%

Manipur 6,207 2,300 544 584 12%

Meghalaya 3,200 1,818 965 833 26%

Mizoram 1,696 706 312 18 12%

Orissa 3,09,102 2,86,653 2,20,697 1,74,709 40%

Punjab 4,00,890 1,22,943 13,576 1,287 3%

Rajasthan 6,23,850 4,58,164 2,32,980 84,032 23%

Sikkim 1,404 150 2 3 0%

Tamil Nadu 4,46,283 2,90,375 1,39,393 40,238 20%

Telangana 1,93,789 1,27,297 51,470 21,936 19%

Tripura 12,507 7,787 2,634 2,883 21%

Uttar Pradesh 21,35,919 16,46,373 12,97,848 7,61,929 35%

Uttarakhand 1,29,422 59,362 19,678 4,598 11%

West Bengal 5,79,744 4,02,138 2,91,449 1,99,037 33%

Total Pending Cases 1,15,46,373 71,90,809 40,46,078 22,71,672 25%

Figure C : Age-wise Break-up of Pendent Cases

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Some Specialized Applications

 Estate Planning: At least two efforts have been made in the field of computerized estate
planning. In a thorough job of estate planning, the interrelationship of federal estate and gift
taxes and state inheritance taxes requires consideration of all the possible variables and almost
endless calculations. The computer has also been used for an interactive interview with a client
to assist in the development of his estate plan. The client actually works the computer terminal,

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responding to programmed questions through the use of branch techniques. From his answers a
file of information on the client is developed, and a draft will is prepared.
 Tax Returns: The application of the computer to tax planning has been discussed in the
preceding section. Computerized tax return services have become commonplace and are used
frequently by both attorneys and accountants. These services vary in the amount of work
actually done on a computer. Some nationwide services make all computations, including such
items as depreciation schedules, and print all of these schedules. They charge accordingly.

 Management of Trial Evidence: One of the earliest uses proposed for the computer in the
practice of law was the management and analysis of the evidence in large trials such as
antitrust; it was this possible application, a prolific author on the subject of computers and the
law. In large cases, the number of individual facts, such as documents, people and dates, reach
tremendous proportions. A moderately sized case, for instance, may utilize two full-time
indexers, approximately 250 file drawers of documents and material, and about 250,000 index
cards-all for just one case. Data of this type can be put in computerized form and made
available upon call. One major advantage of this approach is dispensing with initial indexing.
Another possible use of the computer is the transcription of stenotype notes. Once this
information is captured in machine readable form, the record could easily be analyzed by
computer, not only to prepare an index but also to discover inconsistencies in the testimony.
When records are kept in computerized form, it is also sometimes possible to discover
interesting facts without too much trouble.

 Real Property Applications: Considerable attention has been given to the improvement of
land records, using not only aerial photographic techniques but also a computer. Much interest
in this field has been evinced by the title insurance companies, and computerized techniques
have much potential in improving the accuracy of land transfers.

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THANK YOU

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