The Gazette 1973

Computers for Lawyers

REPORT TO THE SCOTTI SH LEGAL COMPUTER RESEARCH TRUST

by PAUL LEACH

A report, Computers for Lawyers , has just been pub- lished by the Scottish Legal Computer Research Trust on the work carried out with the support of a grant from the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland by William Aitken of the Edinburgh Regional Computing Centre, Colin M. Campbell of the Department of Public Law, University of Edinburgh, and Richard S. Morgan of the Solicitors' Law Stationery Society Ltd. The report believes that a legal information retrieval system for Britain could be workable in five to ten years' time but that Scotland alone could not support the system. The system would enable a lawyer sitting at a terminal in his office to search the full and up-to-date text of statute law, statutory instruments, case law, private Acts and selected textbooks and journals. The service would help the profession by its speedy compre- hensiveness and accuracy. It would also be of great assistance to Parliamentary draftsmen and legal resear- chers. The report mentions that an encouraging development is the imminent availability of the revised statutes in force in computer usable form, which means that mag- netic tapes containing all the statutory material in force in Great Britain will be generated within the next six to seven years and the contents of these tapes could be the basis of such a retrieval system. The report recommends that the trust should actively participate in the establishment of a British non-profit- making organisation to further developments in this field and safeguard the interests of the legal profession and the public by ensuring that any computer services and systems adopted are operationally effective, give value for money and are technically compatible with each other. The report mentions favourably the recent moves by the Computer Study Group which I have set up and about which readers of the Gazette have been kept informed. If a tax-exempt organisation can be set up on the lines which I mentioned in my report in the Decem- ber 6 Gazette (p. 1168) and which is broadly on the lines proposed by the present report, there is reason to believe

that, when computers are applied to the law in Britain, the resulting service will be the best possible for lawyers and their clients. The report proposes that the trust should encourage further education among the legal pro- fession of the potential of computers to its work; it should press university law faculties to introduce their students to modern technology and to the potential utility of various computer applications to the law and should encourage the introduction of subsidiary applications in this field, such as, in Scotland, the publication of micro- fiche form of selected legal materials. The report examines the major areas of outlay which will be necessary before any computer-based information retrieval system could be produced and service existing projects in various countries. From interviews with 122 Scottish lawyers, it was clear that the profession was receptive to the introduction of computers and accepted such developments in the coming decade, but no system would be welcome by the profession unless a strict com- mercial case could be made in its favour. The existing system of legal research is examined and, although on the whole it seems to work well, threequarters of the solicitors interviewed said that there were areas of the law which they had to consult in which they encountered difficulties, particularly taxation law and the Finance Acts, the Rent Acts, social legislation, conveyancing, agricultural law, international private law and estate duty. The report ends on a forward-looking note and says that on the basis of a serious responsible discussion, 'the time is ripe, as it may never be again, for a constructive, positive initiative that may shape and guide further activity, and eventually result in a national legal infor- mation retrieval service being introduced in Great Britain'. It is in this context that the Computer Study Group, which includes among its members the three authors of this report, is now working. Copies of this report may be obtained from the Secre- tary of the Scottish Legal Computer Research Trust, price £1.

MERGER OF THE "LAW GUARDIAN'' AND THE "GAZETTE'' Law Guardian Publishing Company Limited, which in 1970 was acquired by Websters Publications Limited has sold the Law Guardian to the English Law Society. The Law Society intends to publish every fourth issue of the Law Society's Gazette under the title of Guardian Gazette and to circulate that issue to the present readership of the Law Guardian. As a consequence of the sale the Law Guardian Editorial Advisory Committee becomes functus officio and will not therefore continue to act in their former capacity as an advisory panel on editorial content. The Guardian Gazette intends to continue the Law Guardian tradition as a magazine of interest to the whole of the legal profession. 104