Technology’s pervasiveness and widespread use of digital tools, gadgets, and solutions have left their imprint on all industries and sectors. Even industries that were previously resistant to change and were slower to incorporate technology into their operations are now moving in this direction, with the legal field serving as an example.
We’ve come to think of legal services as stuck in the past – for years, law firms, lawyers, and other legal professionals have relied on the same methods and strategies to provide the services their clients require. But, as the world becomes more digitalized, they’ve come to accept some of these innovations, with Big Data at the forefront of the digital transformation.
But how does Big Data fit into legal practice, and how is it used in this context? Because the relationship between Big Data and the legal system is still in its early stages, many questions need to be answered and aspects that need to be explored. So, let’s take a closer look at Big Data’s current role in the legal industry and what it means for both professionals and people in need of legal services.
What is Big Data
Big Data, such as machine learning or IoT, is still a hazy concept for most people. Although many people understand the general concept, the specifics remain somewhat elusive because we don’t have a thorough understanding of how these technologies and their applications can affect our daily lives.
In a nutshell, Big Data is the collection and storage of all types of structured, semistructured, and unstructured data by businesses and organizations in such large quantities and with such a high degree of complexity that it is difficult to process using traditional data management tools. In other words, Big Data refers to large amounts of data, as the name suggests.
There is no denying that the amount of data available has grown at unprecedented rates in recent years and continues to do so. However, simply collecting and storing data is pointless. Although volume, variety, and velocity are the three elements that define Big Data, what matters most is not the amount or type of data collected, but how it is interpreted and used.
As a result, the term is now commonly used to refer to Big Data Analytics – the process of examining data to uncover patterns, trends, and other types of information that can provide valuable insights, assisting organizations in improving their operations and making better-informed decisions.
How the legal industry is utilizing Big Data
The legal industry generates a large amount of data. Previously, this data was collected, stored, and organized in the form of physical documents, resulting in mountains of records and paperwork to sort through every time a specific piece of information was required. However, with the advent of technological devices and the internet, these methods have changed dramatically.
Law firms can now store data collected from clients, courtroom hearings, contracts, or legal history on digital devices and access it whenever it is needed. So, let’s take a look at Big Data’s impact on the legal industry and the use cases that have emerged as a result of it.
Improved decision-making
Dealing with such vast amounts of data can make it difficult for legal professionals to sift through and analyze it all in a timely and efficient manner. Fortunately, technology now allows law firms to use all of this information to their advantage and gain the insights they require to make better-informed decisions. Big Data combined with advanced analytics provides lawyers with instant access to the information they require, allowing them to make predictions about the outcome of a case, decide whether or not to get involved and calculate fees. This also contributes to cost savings, so Big Data assists law firms in saving both time and money.
Client support
Law firms aren’t the only ones who stand to gain from Big Data. Clients can also benefit from the various advantages offered by the use of Big Data in the legal industry. For instance, the numerous tools and apps available to help clients compare and evaluate different law firms and the services they provide have simplified the search for legal services. Similarly, people in the UK can use various apps to calculate compensation for scar injuries or they can benefit from personalized services.
Providing evidence in court
Big Data has enabled access to a vast array of information from a wide range of sources. This alters not only the process of gathering evidence and presenting it in court but also the types of evidence that can be used. As the amount of data collected through tech tools from the online environment grows, the litigation landscape is bound to change dramatically.
Recruiting talent
Law firms are always in need of talented professionals, but finding them can be challenging. HR departments face a difficult task because they must sift through a large number of applications to find the talent they seek. Big Data can help HR departments streamline the recruitment process by making it easier for law firms to evaluate potential candidates and find the best fit for their specific needs.
Big Data, along with other technologies, clearly has the potential to revolutionize the legal industry, changing it for the better and making life easier for both legal professionals and clients. This is already the trend, but because the use of Big Data in the legal field is still in its early stages, we have a long way to go before we fully comprehend the full range of benefits it can offer.
