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How Can Chatbots Benefit Law Firms and Lawyers?


— December 16, 2019

Chatbots offering a user-focused interface to solve a variety of customer queries can serve as the most relevant customer service tool.


Chatbots are increasingly becoming common across multiple fields of specialties, and the legal industry is no longer an exception to this trend. Legal Chatbots emerged as a useful tool to save lawyers a whole lot of investment and time. Most importantly, by providing round the clock customer support all through the days in a week, they help the legal consultation process to be more agile and responsive. 

Instead of replacing the role of lawyers, legal Chatbots built by specialist app developers appeared as the strong helping hands for lawyers and legal professionals. They help to complete all kinds of routine tasks and thus speed up the process exceptionally. While we all are aware of what Chatbots do, here we are going to explain the key advantages they offer for law firms and legal professionals. 

24/7 Availability 

There are clients who have the untamable habit of ringing up after working hours. Though officially, you are not bound to respond, there are times considering the financial impact and the seriousness of the cause, you need to respond. At least while you can’t respond, you can briefly reply or schedule another call or meeting for an elaborate discussion. 

A legal Chatbot well trained with the commonly asked questions and their answers and working knowledge about the profession can work as a great helping hand to facilitate such communication. Legal Chatbots can help a law firm or a lawyer to stay available round the clock for replying to queries of the common sort. 

Continuous availability throughout every hour of the day and night boosts the efficiency of the law firm and makes the process simple. Thanks to Chatbots, lawyers now can have a better overview of the cases they are considering taking. The Chatbot conversation reveals the preliminary details based upon which lawyers can make a call. 

Addressing Human Bias 

Human decision making often suffers from human biases, based upon individual intent, preferences, upbringing, and a plethora of other aspects. This is where the Chatbot communication has an advantage because of being run with machine logic. Though human biases are something you cannot completely do away with, Chatbot programs, thanks to their machine logic and unbiased calculative focus on problem-solving, can help lawyers make decisions that are logically perfect and devoid of typical human leanings and biases. 

Obviously, no business prefers emotional expressions and responses to meddle with their decision-making process, and that is where the role of Chatbots looks effective. As legal decisions mostly correspond to human situations charged with a lot of emotions common in everybody’s life, legal Chatbots, by analyzing the underlying situation objectively and without any bias, boosts precision in the decision-making process. 

Chatbots are Cost-Effective Solutions 

Chatbots make value additions to the resources of the server, and it doesn’t cost a fortune for a well-equipped law firm with a strong digital presence. In the legal industry, the average cost of hiring a person for answering client calls and registering appointments is quite higher compared to the cost of Chatbots. In that regard, Chatbots offer a more cost-effective solution to law firms. 

The Utilization of Data for Analytics 

Thanks to Chatbots, analytics programs and algorithms also receive a continuous stream of data inputs. Chatbot’s conversations with the clients can further be leveraged as insight-rich data for analysis. In the legal profession, knowing about the clients and their actual intents is of seminal importance as this often helps lawyers make the right decisions in the right context. This is where legal Chatbots and conversation data produced by them can play a significant role in deriving relevant insights. Moreover, Chatbots are also highly effective tools for capturing client feedback and opinions that help a legal service to address issues and shortcomings. 

Customer Service

Chatbots offering a user-focused interface to solve a variety of customer queries can serve as the most relevant customer service tool. Moreover, thanks to the latest technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, bots continue to learn about customer interactions and accordingly become more equipped over time to handle complex queries.

Productivity Boosting

Within a law firm, it is always challenging to take care of a maximum number of cases while always providing due importance and service to each specific case in a capable manner. This is where Chatbots can play a great role in optimizing the internal work process and boosting individual productivity.

Woman with paper planner and pen; image by STIL, via Unsplash.com.
Woman with paper planner and pen; image by STIL, via Unsplash.com.

Process Automation

In the legal profession, the vast majority of the documents are standard ones that hardly differ from one case to the other. From filling out certain forms, maintaining legal compliance with some documents, to documenting the statutory legal requirements, all these and many such documentation needs are regular ones that every law firm needs to handle. Chatbots with a strong algorithm capable of filling out forms and documentation requirements for clients can help to automate such standard procedures. This will only help to boost productivity while minimizing cost. 

Virtual Assistant

Last but not the least of the advantages of Chatbots are their great role in playing the role of virtual assistant that can handle all repetitive tasks for lawyers. Many lawyers and legal professionals at the start of their business day spend a lot of time locating the files, making schedules of meetings, coordinating with other lawyers, and trying to find answers. This is where a fully equipped virtual assistant can ease out things by taking care of all repetitive and standard tasks. 

Conclusion 

So, Chatbots have emerged as the most promising tool for law firms and lawyers. With so many advantages on offer, the bots are likely to bring the next big revolution in the legal industry.

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