E-law may hit UK law firms

The trend towards cheap, online legal advice will lead to a "massacre" of traditional high-street law firms who don't act quickly to embrace ecommerce, according to Charles Christian, editor of online magazine, Legal Technology Insider.

Christian quoted statistics that said up to 20 per cent of high-street firms could be driven out of business by Internet-based legal services.

Most of these services are aimed at small businesses, who can now download standard documents from services like Freeserve's Desktop Lawyer and LawNet, rather than paying a lawyer each time a new document is required.

There's no point in hiring a lawyer to draft standard documents, Christian argues. But he said that doesn't mean lawyers will be made redundant by technology. "Anything that involves an element of negotiation, where it's not a black-and-white situation, but grey, that's where you're going to need a lawyer."

Still, UK law firms are moving "pitifully slowly" to the Internet, he claims. "Quite a few now use email, but given that in England and Wales there are 10,000 solicitors' practices, there are still only 5,000 firms with Web sites. And most of those are straightforward brochureware."

David McNeill, spokesman for the Law Society, agreed that the Internet is a bottom-line issue for the profession. He explained that online services like conveyancing - which is being piloted in the West Country now- will hit high-street firms hard. But beyond the Internet, there's a need for law firms to work IT into their day-to-day business.

"Under the Woolf reforms, there will be a great reliance on IT as a case management tool," McNeill explained. "All these wagonloads of paper will be available electronically, and if you're not geared up to deal with civil litigation that way, you're going to be left behind."