Today is Love Your Lawyer Day! Join the millions around the world who will be celebrating their favorite lawyers on Friday, November 3, 2017. To learn more, visit the American Lawyers Public Image Association website.
The Rise of the Legal Chatbots
Hello, I’m Lawson, your legal robot assistant. How can I help you?
This is the kind of prompt you might encounter on a website that offers customer service by chat. Friendly avatars greet you on retail websites, ready to sell you everything from appliances to vehicles. A virtual concierge, for example, might help you plan your next vacation. Even tech support is often provided via a chat or messaging feature. And now in law, chatbots or “robot lawyers” are facilitating access to the legal system and helping users handle simple legal matters.
Perhaps the most well-known legal chatbot is DoNotPay, a tool that guides users through a series of questions designed to dispute parking tickets. In recent months, the DoNotPay chatbot has expanded considerably to address a variety of legal concerns including consumer rights, employment law, and landlord-tenant disputes. Soon, the creator of the site, Josh Browder, hopes to offer a chatbot that will handle your divorce.
Hate Crime Help is a newer addition to the army of chatbots ready to help people who have been victims of hate crimes, including violence, verbal attacks, property damage, and harassment. The app lets you specify that the crime was motivated by discrimination based on race, ethnicity, religion, immigration status, gender, or sexual orientation. It then provides contact information for local resources linked to your zip code that will help you get the legal relief you need. Additional information about what the law says regarding hate crimes at the state and national levels is provided, along with a point-by-point comparison of hate crimes and bias incidents.
ProTechMe uses a chatbot to quickly and efficiently collect information needed for securing a protective order in Harris County. Its design is based on the Texas Attorney General's Protective Order kit (which can be found here on TexasLawHelp.org). Information that is gathered via the chatbot auto-populates a pdf document that the user can then print out and submit to the district attorney or to a legal aid office. Victims of family violence are often closely monitored by their abusers, and using the Internet to search for help may not be a safe option. Although ProTechMe is still in development, it may, eventually, become a safer and more practical way for victims to get the help and information they need.
Robots are unlikely to replace lawyers any time soon, if ever, despite media reports that sometimes sensationalize the impact of chatbots and related AI technologies. However, there is no doubt that technology will continue to shape the practice of law and change how clients interface with the legal system. Embracing technology as a tool for facilitating access to justice is advisable, for, as the robot overlords always say, resistance is futile.
Position Opening: Assistant Law Librarian
Click to download PDF of "Job Description for Assistant Law Librarian"
The application period for this position has closed.
The Harris County Law Library seeks a dynamic, public-service oriented law librarian to join our collaborative, innovation-driven team as an Assistant Law Librarian. The position focuses on providing reference support for self-represented litigants, attorneys, and county officials of the nation’s third most-populous county. Through participation in the Law Library’s outreach efforts, instructional services, and digital content development, the position also presents a real opportunity for professional growth for a motivated law librarian seeking new challenges, including the chance to build innovative programs and create digital content through the Law Library’s Legal Tech Institute.
See the complete job description for a detailed list of duties and responsibilities. All qualified candidates are encouraged to send a cover letter and resume to Law Library Deputy Director Joseph Lawson at Joseph.Lawson@cao.hctx.net. The position is currently available and applications will be considered as received.
About the Harris County Law Library: The Harris County Law Library first opened its doors in 1915 and is the oldest, continuously-operating public law library in the State of Texas. Today, as a part of the Office of Vince Ryan, Harris County Attorney, the Law Library seeks to be of service to all and promote access to justice through access to legal resources. Located within steps of more than 80 courts and several more county agencies in downtown Houston’s courthouse complex, the Law Library is located at the point of need for access to legal information and provides the resources and educational opportunities self-represented litigants and local attorneys need to effectively participate in government processes. The Law Library also works with community partners to provide additional services, including a Houston Volunteer Lawyers information booth and circulation services from the Harris County Public Library.
Legal Tech Institute CLE: Finding & Formatting Legal Forms
Please join us for the next Legal Tech Institute CLE, Finding & Formatting Legal Forms, on Thursday, October 26th at 12:00 noon. Presenters will guide attendees in using three of the most popular legal databases -- Westlaw, Lexis, and O’Connor’s -- to locate legal forms. In the second part of the program, presenters will edit one of the forms found in one of the three legal research databases to demonstrate the use of various formatting features in Microsoft Word.
PLEASE NOTE: The location of this CLE has changed. It will be held in the Conference Room on the 17th floor of Congress Plaza at 1019 Congress, Houston, TX 77002. Please see the announcement for further details and to register for this program.
Legal Tech Institute Celebrates First Anniversary
The Legal Tech Institute at the Harris County Law Library launched in October, 2016, with the CLE Social Media for Lawyers. Building on the success of that program, we've expanded learning opportunities significantly with a dozen in-person courses and 5 On-Demand training sessions available on our website. As with all programs at the Harris County Law Library, LTI classes are always free and open to all.
Additionally, each LTI video CLE is accredited by the State Bar of Texas and Texas attorneys can receive credit for watching the videos up to a year after the live program. That means the LTI anniversary also marks the end point for receiving Texas CLE credit for our first program. Watch Social Media for Lawyers and report your credit at www.texasbar.com before time runs out!