Below we've listed technology trends positively impacting the legal industry in 2022.

Practice-Management Software

If your firm has been waiting to implement Practice Management Software, 2022 is the time to act. The right software can be a powerful tool that brings convenience and increased productivity, saving your firm valuable time.

PM Software Features

Take the time to find the right software and ensure that it delivers essential features and functionality.

• Centralised document management with the power of search
• Fully integrated general and trust accounting
• Matter management automation and real-time transparency
• Management of critical dates, client appointments and meetings
• Team performance and achievement
• Simple time tracking and management

LawMaster is an intelligent, all-in-one software solution that can help your firm streamline its workflows to increase productivity and efficiency.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

AI has been steadily disrupting the legal industry for years using machine intelligence to take over labour-intensive and repetitive tasks. Law firms are adopting AI to replace the following time-consuming tasks.

Document Review

AI-powered software reviews large volumes of data with increased speed, accuracy and efficiency.

Legal Research

AI pushes legal research beyond regular research automation. AI can save hours to find similar cases instantly and respond to plain English queries.

Result Prediction

Through access to high volumes of relevant data, AI can predict a cases' viability accurately.

Implementing AI in your law firm frees up more billable hours to concentrate on strategy-focused activities to increase productivity levels. 

Blockchain

Blockchain adoption in Australia is relatively slow compared to countries like the US. However, there is clear evidence of the technology trend gaining traction as the legal industry moves towards dynamic and modern ways to serve lawyer and client needs. Being an early adopter of this technology trend can push your law firm to become a leader in this technology space, attract new clients, and strengthen your relationship with clients who value this trend.

What Is Blockchain Technology?

Blockchain is a comprehensive ledger capable of recording all types of information, from financial transactions to asset ownership. The chronologically stored data is encrypted, time-stamped and only altered with permissions. Blockchain can offer your firm unprecedented security while fast-tracking and simplifying legal transactions, improving your client experience while streamlining your work process.

Smart Contracts

A smart contract is a digital contract created in code using blockchain technology. This technology provides a convenient, timely, and cost-effective digital contract solution that streamlines complicated legal processes with transparency and speed. Benefits of using smart contracts include:

• Smart contracts are self-executing therefore use no third-party intervention.
• Smart contracts are logic-driven, progressing only when meeting conditions outlined in code.
• Smart contracts self-verify, recognising compliance or penalising appropriately upon failure to meet a condition.

There is an argument that smart contracts will take work away from lawyers however the technology is far from developed enough to take the need for lawyers away. However, it would be advantageous for law firms to understand how to utilise smart contracts in daily practice with traditional contracts.

Internet of Things (IoT)

IoT is a network of information exchange between physical objects. These objects contain technology to exchange data with other devices and systems. IoT helps connect people, appliances, and machines to other devices to help optimise information processing and decision-making. IoT is a developing technology trend to monitor as IoT is used widely in everyday life in Australia.

IoT As Evidence

IoT can transform legal practice by using data to build litigation cases. For example,

• Health App indicates a person has walked 6km a day despite claiming a bad car accident injury.
• GPS data showing a defendant's locations and car speeds of their vehicle prior to an accident.

While IoT presents data with great potential to be extremely valuable for your firm's litigation, privacy challenges must be balanced and considered. Moving forward, IoT will bring many questions to the legal industry regarding privacy, security, intellectual property, data ownership, and scope of usage; therefore, lawyers would be best to keep engaged in the developments that occur in this space.

Cyber Security

The growing use of cloud-based tools in the legal industry and the increase in cyber-attacks have cemented cyber security's spot in our 2022 technology trends to know.

Cyber security attacks can have devastating effects on law firms and their clients. Unfortunately, law firms are at a high risk of data breaches due to the volumes of sensitive information stored on file.

Keeping your client’s information confidential is a professional obligation; therefore, it’s critical to understand the best practices for staying safe online. Our suggestions for staying on top of this technology trend include:

• Implementing a cyber security policy
• Cyber security awareness training
• Cyber security incident response plans
• Encrypted email services
• Password protection
• Data backup

It is recommended that your cyber security systems be checked and verified by specialist professionals to ensure that your systems can handle cyber-attacks.

Conclusion: Technology Takeaway

How is your law firm positioned with the technology trends of 2022?

Implementing all trends at once may not be practicable or realistic, but choosing technology trends that align with your firm's KPIs is a good starting point. We recommend implementing trends that streamline your processes and help you win and retain clients, resulting in more success for your law firm.

Legal software such as LawMaster is technology guaranteed to help your law firm increase productivity and efficiency to get you started in the right direction.