Technology

Online legal services provider Rocket Lawyer has received a £161m funding boost to meet growing demand and scale up its cloud-based case management system.

There is a long way to go to unlock the potential of technology to transform legal services and regulators have an important role in this, the chief executive of the Legal Services Board has said.

Lawyers need to make consumer-facing legal documents more engaging, and regulators and industry should consider measures to ensure they are intelligible, a report has recommended.

An app linking consumers to lawyers who provide free video consultations has been launched this week after three months of testing with 20 law firms – more than 160 firms have now signed up.

A law firm is deploying artificial intelligence software that will become the first point of contact for all new clients, trained to offer initial legal advice and triage cases.

Digital onboarding platform Thirdfort has secured £1.5m in its latest fundraising, with further backing from Zoopla entrepreneur Alex Chesterman and London law firm Mishcon de Reya.

Listed law firm Ince has launched a product to help estate agents onboard clients in a way that meets the demands of anti-money laundering regulations.

There is a “growing cluster” of lawtech businesses in the Bristol and Bath area, along with hundreds of lawtech and innovation roles, with the chance to build on this significantly, new research has found.

A lawtech start-up aiming to improve communication between family lawyers and their clients has explained how its product could in time help identify cases involving coercive control.

The biggest law firms in the top 50 are some of the weakest when it comes to the digital effectiveness of their websites, a report has found.

Rethinking the home-buying process – including bringing an end to caveat emptor – and putting digital justice on a firm footing are among projects being considered by the Law Commission.

There needs to be greater collaboration between lawyers, tech designers, coders and software developers, an event to mark the end of the first phase of the government-backed lawtech sandbox pilot heard last night.

A barrister who co-founded a groundbreaking business that allows separating couples to obtain advice from a single legal expert at any point in the process, has won a £50,000 Women in Innovation award.

A solicitor who won a female innovators award is to put her £50,000 cash prize to building an automated platform that will provide cost-effective legal support to start-ups.

A new approach to contracts based on legally binding principles of conduct and comprehensive model terms has been put forward by a leading figure in the lawtech community.