The Gazette 1973

Computers for Lawyers

REPORT TO THE SCOTTI SH LEGAL COMPUTER RESEARCH TRUST

by PAUL LEACH

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.

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