AI Gives You a Better Legal Experience
There are lots of conversations happening right now about AI and lawyers.
Will AI replace lawyers? Will robots be drafting your relationship property agreement? Will Sarah eventually be replaced by a very efficient laptop?
We don’t think so.
But there are some genuinely useful ways we can use AI to make your experience with a lawyer better. And one of our favourites is surprisingly simple.
We use it to help us listen.
We don’t want to spend your meeting taking notes
When you meet with one of our relationship property lawyers, you might be telling them about some of the most important, complicated and emotional things happening in your life. We don’t want to spend that conversation staring at a notepad or typing furiously while you talk. So, with your permission, we record our meetings.
That means your lawyer can actually be present in the conversation. We can listen properly, ask better questions and focus on what you’re telling us rather than worrying about capturing every detail in our notes.
Afterwards, we use Contended AI to create a transcript and summary of the meeting.
And that has some pretty big benefits for you.
You don’t have to remember everything either
Legal meetings can contain a lot of information.
You’re trying to understand your rights, think about your house, money, KiwiSaver and next steps, while possibly also dealing with the emotional reality of a separation.
We don’t expect you to remember it all.
Our technology allows us to turn the meeting into a written record and summary, so you can go back over what was discussed afterwards.
You can focus on the conversation while you’re in it, knowing you don’t need to scribble down every important sentence or try to commit everything to memory.
It saves you money
There’s another less obvious benefit. Lawyers have professional responsibilities around keeping proper records of the advice they give and the work they do. Traditionally, that means after finishing a meeting or phone call they then need to spend more time preparing a detailed file note recording the advice they gave. Sometimes it can take just as long as the meeting itself to record everything! And if you’re paying your lawyer for their time on an hourly basis, you are paying for that record that they need to keep.
Because our meetings and calls can be recorded and transcribed, we already have a detailed record of the conversation. That means less time spent manually recreating what was just discussed. Less admin for us. Less cost for you.
We think that’s a much better use of technology.
We use the same approach for phone calls
All our calls run through VXT, our internet-based phone system. Calls are recorded and automatically transcribed, and a summary of the conversation is generated for us.
This means that when the call ends, we already have a clear record of what was discussed. There’s no need for your lawyer to spend another 10 or 15 minutes writing up a file note afterwards and, importantly, no need for you to pay for that time.
Again, it’s a pretty simple use of technology, but one that makes a real difference.
More listening. Less admin. Less cost.
AI doesn’t replace your lawyer
AI is a tool we use to support our lawyers, not replace them.
It doesn’t decide what advice you receive. It doesn’t determine your strategy. And it certainly doesn’t understand your priorities, worries or former partner the way your lawyer will after working closely with you.
Your lawyer is still responsible for your legal advice and for the work we do.
We simply use technology to take care of some of the background work so our humans have more time to do the work that actually requires humans:
- Listening.
- Thinking.
- Explaining.
- Strategising.
- And supporting you through some pretty big decisions.
A modern law firm should make things easier
At Clean Break, being a modern law firm isn’t about using technology because it’s shiny and new.
It’s about asking a very simple question: Can this make the experience better for our clients?
If technology means you get a lawyer who is more present in your meeting, a clear record of what was discussed, less time spent on administration and potentially lower legal costs, we’re interested.
Because we’d much rather spend our time helping you understand what happens next than writing a file note about the conversation we just had with you.
That’s one small way AI is helping us do law a little differently.
Read Sarah Moon’s Blog:
What Your Lawyer Really Thinks About AI
Lindsey Rigby is Clean Break’s Client Care and Marketing Manager and a big believer that good technology should make life easier, not more complicated. She loves finding clever ways to use systems, automation and AI to reduce admin and create a smoother, more human experience for Clean Break clients.
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