Back in the day, when faced with a bureaucratic ‘irritation’, such as a parking fine or (wrongful) accusation of some sort, people usually followed three options. The uninformed paid their dues without questioning; the resource-constrained simply kept dodging the authorities; and those with deep pockets took on the fight, because they had the means to prove their point.

With legal fees out of reach for the majority of the global population, altruistic programmers have taken matters into their own hands. First they gave the world a texting bot that asks the accused a series of simple questions (at no cost!), after which a recommendation is made: rather pay or rather appeal. Since then, the menu of options has expanded considerably.

If you believe that you are a victim of biased predictive policing or if you suspect that someone is copying and re-selling your 3D printed products, you know where to go. The bot will provide you with an opinion (proven correct in over 75% of all cases) and background on precedent. You will need to hire a lawyer to argue the actual case for you, but who cares, that still saves you a lot of money!

For the first time, those in the legal profession will have to say goodbye to all the low-hanging fruit, because technology is now giving them away for free. We’ve all heard of Fintech disrupting banking; now it’s Lextech disrupting lawyers!