Author: Abhinav Mishra, II Year of B.A.,LL.B(Hons.) From Dharmashastra National Law University, Jabalpur.
INTRODUCTION
What is law? A series of codified instructions proscribing ifs and thens - dos and don’ts. On the first glance it seems similar to computer programming but the legal system is not as straightforward as coding. If we look at the problems of the legal system today, whether it be the problem of pending cases, overburdened courts and swathes of people facing false charges against them.
But the question remains the same: can artificial intelligence replace lawyers and judges in the coming future? Very much so.
Let’s take the example of DoNotPay, an AI-powered chatbot that was created in 2015 by a 19-year-old Stanford University student named Joshua Browder. This chatbot was initially designed with the view to help people contest their parking tickets in places like Londan and New York city. But now this Chatbot is about to make history next month by defending an accused person in the court of the United States who violated some traffic laws.
Therefore we must consider the various aspects of artificial intelligence and in what way it can affect the Indian legal system.
IS IT POSSIBLE TO ARGUE IN THE INDIAN COURTS WITH THE HELP OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE?
The present legal system in India does not allow AI powered tools to argue in the Indian courts, Firstly because there is no such provision in the Advocates Act 1961 and due to absence of statutory provision allowing AI to argue before courts cannot be permitted. Secondly, solely relying on the use of AI to argue matters is counterproductive as it leaves no space for creativity to develop laws on any aspect as law is not a static subject and a constantly evolving one and thus it needs human input to establish a law that can fulfil the requirements of society.
HOW TOOLS LIKE CHATGPT CAN HELP TO IMPROVE THE EFFICIENCY OF LAWYERS?
With the ability to process a bunch of information in a very short time, AI can help lawyers in research of various case laws, suitable precedents and what not. Tools such as ChatGPT which can recognize the human language has the ability to provide responses and texts that would complement the given situation. It can also be used for drafting standard contracts.
CAN AI BE USED BY JUDGES WHILE PRONOUNCING JUDGMENTS?
After training the AI based applications on a huge historical set of precedents, the application can be capable of highlighting key points that can be relevant for judges. For example you wanted to find the rulings of the court, or a specific judge, on black money — you can use the software to analyse thousands of previous cases and create a ‘judge analytics’. It’s quicker than having someone actually sit down and prepare a huge Excel sheet, which is too much work for a person. So it can definitely be useful for judges but cannot replace them absolutely.
CONCLUSION
No doubt the use of technology in the Indian legal system has revolutionised this system. Artificial Intelligence is still in its nascent age and it will take more time to get acquainted with the intricacies of the Indian legal system and Indian courts as well. It can certainly make the work of a lawyer or a judge much easier and better by removing inequalities, lack of access to relevant information and can enable a streamlined approach to research and argumentation. So we can say that in the legal world there is no human replacement but yes Artificial intelligence has become a welcome addition to the legal field but certainly not replacement of lawyers and judges.
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