The digital revolution has added new and significant dimensions to our legal system. From the gathering of evidence to IP infringement cases and online defamation, technology plays a central role in assessing damages in civil lawsuits. In fact, the harm to plaintiffs in many cases has increased exponentially because of the internet—and thus technology becomes essential in even starting a case evaluation. In line with the fast-paced changes, new legal-tech tools including AI-powered systems are being developed to meet the task and do so with greater precision than ever before.
New Roles for Technology in Civil Cases
Legal tech tools have become essential in every step of the trial process, both civil and criminal. In civil cases, its benefits are seen in many basic tasks.
- Evidence Gathering
Traditionally, the damage from injuries such as IP infringement and defamation was finite. Neither illegal use of trademarked and copyrighted assets nor libelous statements could spread very far, as the reach of communication was more limited. The internet, of course, changed this. Today, whether it’s pirated media or false accusations posted online, it can spread around the world and reach millions of people instantly.
That’s where digital forensics comes in. Experts specializing in online damage assessment have developed digital forensic tools that can determine how far content has spread and over which platforms. The data helps estimate the number of people the content has reached, allowing legal teams to present in careful detail—backed by digital records and screenshots—the damage done, key both to winning a case and assessing monetary damages.
That’s just one specialized use. More generally, in civil and criminal cases, digital tools are used to efficiently search for evidence by scanning financial records, email, social media posts, and other expansive digital archives the internet has created. Since the earliest computer scandals, in which government officials were shocked to learn that “deleting” files didn’t actually erase the data because files could be recovered, we have come a long way.
2. Valuation of Damages
Nowadays, piracy, defamation, malware, and other content quickly go global, meaning that without analytics tools, there is no way to determine how far a problem has spread. As mentioned, computer forensics can map out the spread of content online and tally the various platforms on which it traveled. Looking across social media, video, news sites, and search engine pages to demonstrate the extent of infringement or defamation is now possible.
Technology goes further, with data analytics assessing loss of revenue, harm to brand value, and reputational damage, all based on engagement metrics, website traffic, and other factors.
3. Precedent and Case Law
Following traditional British common law, the American legal system is based on precedent. The rationale for decisions from previous cases is a major factor in deciding new cases. Each year the volume of legal cases in numerous jurisdictions grows, so learning to efficiently locate and cite precedent begins in law school. Thus, it’s not surprising that among the first use of tech in the legal industry was searching text files of legal cases to locate circumstances similar to those at hand. Many legal-tech tools for searching databases of precedents have been developed, with artificial intelligence components added in recent years. AI tools quickly sift through vast databases, pinpointing key precedents and aiding accurate damage assessments. This gives lawyers a competitive edge and supports claims with well-researched arguments. Popular AI tools used in legal research include Casetext and Lex Machina which store large amounts of data and can generate quick summaries that aid in research and review.
In one example, an 18-year-old Londoner named Josh Bowder obtained his driver’s license, and soon after received a pile of parking tickets. In response, he developed software that could seek out loopholes and fight the tickets, a system so successful he launched an app that quickly gained 50,000 users and a $10-million investment. Today his company, DoNotPay, claims its chatbot “robot lawyer” service utilizes IBM Watson AI to help consumers solve problems such as contesting parking tickets, appealing bank fees, and stopping robocallers.
4. Expert Witnesses and Reports.
The details of digital forensics and the intricacies of social media and search results are complex and difficult to understand. This has created a growing need for expert witnesses specializing in digital forensics and online reputation management. These experts assess cases and evidence and often provide valuations for damages backed by evidence. They then provide testimony and reports to explain complex concepts for judges and juries—who likely do not possess the technical background to understand its full extent.
Expert witnesses offer specialized knowledge to understand where to look for evidence and how to present it. They also have collected or developed tools to streamline their workflow and perfect the presentation of evidence and reports.
New AI Tools
Artificial intelligence is being evaluated for use in everything from medical technology to Hollywood movies. It’s not surprising to find numerous experiments in legal-tech. AI is being used to ease valuation in civil suits in the following ways:
1. Document Discovery and Analysis
From regulatory compliance to legal cases, document management systems have become standard in the corporate world. With the addition of AI, they analyze huge archives of documents from email to financial records, allowing lawyers to uncover key data for evidence gathering and damage assessment. New tools that have shown the capacity to aid document review and sift through large case documents and offer analysis include Everlaw and HarveyAI.
2. Data Mining and Analytics
AI models search numerous sources of data to identify patterns and trends that are relevant to civil and criminal cases.
3. Sentiment Evaluation
AI legal-tech tools can search online content to analyze the impact on reputational harm. These systems look at news and blogs, social media posts, videos, product reviews, and other content to judge how public perception of a person, brand, or company has been affected.
4.Quantitative Modeling
Systems are using machine learning and other technology to consider financial data, market trends, and sentiment evaluation. Based on the information, they asses the economic harm caused by defamation or the losses incurred by IP infringement.
AI Challenges and Limitations
Today’s news is filled with dueling reports of AI’s wonders and AI’s apocalyptic threats. In the legal arena, the contentions about the use of AI are just as controversial.
1. Privacy Concerns
AI used in court cases may access numerous archives of data that contain sensitive personal information about people involved and not involved in cases. This raises data privacy and security concerns. Legal teams hence need to vet the systems they implement to ensure the technology complies with regulations and security protocols.
2. Potential Biases
One of the biggest challenges artificial intelligence has presented in many applications is a tendency toward biased interpretations imposed by the data sets on which the AI trains. AI algorithms take and build on whatever biases exist in the data. As a result, these applications must be constantly supervised, and proofed by humans with the expertise to recognize problems related to bias and the potential damage they can cause.
3. Reliability
AI is a bleeding-edge technology that can produce incorrect and unwanted results. In court cases, this can lead to severe consequences in terms of the rights of the individuals involved in cases, as well as financial losses. Again, the use of AI for these tasks requires ongoing human monitoring by trained legal teams.
Summary
Proving all the elements of IP infringement, defamation, or other causes is only half the case. Equally challenging can be the valuation of monetary damages, which in turn must be presented in compelling testimony and reports to judges and juries. Emerging digital technologies are regularly applied to provide an objective and quantified assessment of damages.
These technologies, including AI, are here to stay—they are the future. As in other fields, attorneys, courts, and clients will do best to embrace them, but do so cautiously, to make the most advantageous use of these technologies while working to overcome their challenges.