How AI can bring efficiency to the Sri Lankan legal industry

Would you believe that, according to a report published by the Ministry of Justice, there are over 1.1 million pending cases in the Sri Lankan legal system?

For a population of 22 million, this is a staggering backlog to clear. It raises an important question: what has caused such a massive accumulation of unresolved cases?

While several factors contribute to this overwhelming number, one of the primary culprits is the difficulty in finding relevant and accurate information quickly. Unfortunately, the Sri Lankan legal industry still heavily relies on traditional research methodologies, supported by outdated websites or systems that are not well-integrated.

Several key issues exacerbate this challenge:

• Scattered Information: Legal data in Sri Lanka is dispersed across numerous sources, making it difficult for professionals to access comprehensive information in one place.


• Traditional search capabilities: Traditional keyword-based search algorithms are often too simplistic for the complexities of the legal industry. As a result, Sri Lankan legal professionals struggle to reach out to the most relevant documents from large databases.


• Lack of Interconnectivity: There is often a disconnect between case laws and relevant legislation, forcing legal professionals to manually link related documents, which can be both time-consuming and error-prone.


• Complex Amendment Histories: Tracking amendments to Acts can be a daunting task, especially when the history of changes is complex and not easily accessible.


• Unavailability of Insights: The absence of readily available insights means that legal professionals must rely heavily on manual reading and analysis to interpret documents, which slows down the research process.


• Manual Documentation Tasks: Many documentation tasks, such as extensive reading and summarizing cases or creating reports, are still done manually, leading to inefficiencies and a higher risk of errors.


• Manual Tracking of Update: Updates such as over-rulings must be tracked manually, increasing the chances of citing outdated or invalid precedents.

These challenges contribute to the inefficiencies in the legal system and the growing backlog of cases.

However, the introduction of AI technology has the potential to address these issues and bring much-needed efficiency to the Sri Lankan legal industry.

Scattered Information

Before we delve into the role of AI, it’s important to understand the prerequisite: The availability of data.

In Sri Lanka, legal information is fragmented across numerous sources, which are often not interconnected. This fragmentation forces legal professionals to spend excessive amounts of time gathering information from multiple sources to complete a single task. This inefficiency not only delays the legal process but also increases the risk of errors.

1. How to search exactly what you need from a large set of documents

One of the most time-consuming tasks for legal professionals is searching for relevant information from a vast collection of documents. Traditional methods require manually sifting through numerous case laws, legislations, and regulations, which is both tedious and prone to oversight.

How AI Can Help: AI-powered search tools can revolutionize this process. The usage of natural language processing (NLP) allows the system to understand the context of a query, delivering more accurate and relevant results. Unlike traditional keyword searches, which only match exact words, contextual search analyzes the meaning behind the query, capturing nuances and related concepts, resulting in more comprehensive and precise outcomes.

Advanced contextual search allows legal professionals to find case laws based on detailed descriptions, the specific issues a client is facing, the nature of the matter, or even the sections of an act referenced in the judgment. This capability drastically improves efficiency, enabling more targeted and relevant results.

2. Consolidated acts

In Sri Lanka, legal professionals often struggle with accessing up-to-date versions of acts and regulations. Amendments, repeals, and new legislation can be difficult to track, especially when they are scattered across different sources.

How AI Can Help:

AI can automatically consolidate acts and regulations, ensuring that legal professionals have access to the most current and complete versions. By continuously monitoring updates to legislation, AI can provide a single, unified source of legal information, reducing the risk of relying on outdated laws.

3. Overrule detection

Referring to an overruled case can undermine a legal argument and damage a lawyer's credibility. However, identifying whether a case has been overruled requires extensive research, which is often difficult given the fragmented state of legal information.

How AI Can Help: AI can automatically detect whether a case has been overruled or if there are any overruling insights within the case itself. This feature helps legal professionals avoid citing outdated or invalid precedents, ensuring that their arguments are based on solid, up-to-date legal foundations.

4. Extracted information without having to read the entire document

Legal documents are often lengthy and dense, making it challenging to extract the key points quickly. Reading through entire case files or legislation can be time-consuming, especially when under tight deadlines.

How AI Can Help: AI can summarize large legal documents, extracting the most relevant information such as key arguments, legal precedents, citations and judgments. This allows legal professionals to get a quick overview of the document's content without having to read it in its entirety, saving valuable time.

5. Ask questions, get clarifications about a document

Understanding complex legal documents often requires clarification on specific points, which traditionally involves consulting with peers or doing additional research. This process can be slow and may not always yield clear answers.

How AI Can Help: AI-powered chatbots or virtual assistants can provide instant answers to questions about a legal document. Users can ask specific queries related to the content, and the AI can provide explanations, context, or direct them to the relevant sections. This interactive feature enhances understanding and ensures that legal professionals have the clarity they need to proceed confidently.

6. Content creation & documentation

Legal professionals often need to create various documents, such as summaries, briefs, and reports, which require accuracy and attention to detail. Crafting these documents manually can be time-consuming and susceptible to human error.

How AI Can Help: AI can assist in content creation by generating drafts of legal documents based on the input provided. This includes creating case summaries, headnotes, and other essential legal content. The AI can analyze the relevant information and produce high-quality drafts that save time and reduce the workload of legal professionals.

AI has the potential to significantly transform the Sri Lankan legal industry by addressing long-standing challenges such as fragmented information, manual processes, and outdated research methods. The integration of AI can streamline legal research, improve accuracy, and free up valuable time for legal professionals to focus on more strategic tasks.

However, this is only the beginning. In part two of this series, we will explore the next steps AI can take to further revolutionize the Sri Lankan legal system.

Stay tuned as we delve into the future possibilities of AI in law.

#AIPazz #BlogPost

https://www.aipazz.com