Turning Computers Into Secretaries: In the Technology Age

There is no doubt that we live in a world of change, a world in which we are starting to let more and more of our traditional jobs over to the work of computers. In the movie, “Jurassic Park,” Jeff Goldblum said to the curator of the dinosaur park, “Yeah, but your scientists were so interested in finding out if they could, that they forgot to think if they SHOULD!” This thinking reflects much of what is going on in the world of technology today. Especially people in the legal profession, who are responsible for important legal documents which vastly affect people’s lives, are slow to let go of the traditional methods in search for an easy automatic solution.

Yet, technology has now allowed the seamless integration of all aspects of the legal process which exudes not only increased efficiency but also a reliable means of processing required legal paperwork and documents. This process must happen on line into a secure system that can be trusted to be accurate and legally compliant.

IN SEARCH OF THE IDEAL

But they say a system is only as good as it is programmed to do, so the challenge remains to find the best, “smartest” software that will do the job as quickly and efficiently as possible, while making sure it correctly detects legal issues and obligations.

The Stanford Computable Contracts Initiative (SCCI) has as its goal to develop the ideal online platform that will move the legal profession more toward a world in which computer systems will not only be able to interpret but also make intelligent decisions on issues of legal importance.

ABOUT COMPUTABLE CONTRACTS: A DEFINITION

A computable contract is a contractual obligation which is designed and formulated in a way that can be understood by computers. It has to be able to be efficient in terms of compliance assessment and must be able to detect any legal contradictions. This is very important when it comes to turning over work that requires an intelligent being to make decisions on matters of legal importance. Therefore, the software systems that are used must be highly capable of distinguishing and interpreting issues regarding legal matters so that you can depend on its accuracy.

The SCCI does this quite efficiently and delineates between issues of legal importance and other factors, so that the result is a true reflection of a contractual agreement, which allows the parties to trust in the system to provide a good alternative to traditional paper/pen contracts.

The search for the perfect corporate secretariat system continues with companies such as DataCare, which was acquired by Computershare. They, too hope to be on the cutting edge of this new and fastly growing technology, which promises to revolutionize the legal profession.

WE’VE COME A LONG WAY BABY

There is no doubt that the legal profession is starting to open up to the idea of on line computerized solutions in an effort to streamline the legal process. As more clients go mobile and access the technology, the more the need for this type of technology will increase.