Discuss the increasing adoption of digital technologies in the provision of legal services with specific emphasis:
a) Any Ethical responsibility for lawyers to ensure competence in their use; and
b) Issues of client confidentiality arising out of their use
Technology has been changing the way we live our lives in pretty much every way imaginable. The common belief in the past was that only manual work would be greatly affected by the rise of technology. However, service professions such as the legal profession, has certainly seen a change as well. There are discussions what this will mean in the future and whether it will go beyond the current role, which is acting more as an aid to lawyers. If that is so it could potentially change the current legal framework and question the role of lawyers themselves. There are also issues relating more to the protection of clients through data protection, confidentiality and accountability to look out for. This essay will focus on three main points. Firstly, discuss the overall impact of technology on the legal professions, while discussing the perceived threat of this. Secondly, exploring the lawyer’s responsibility to offer quality and proper service and relating to accountability of these new technology aids. Lastly, it will discuss issues relating to confidentiality and the overall role of the lawyer to ensure this while balancing out the cost reducing and more efficient technologies.
Technology has already had a major impact on
