Building Intelligent Legal Decision Support Systems: Past Practice and Future Challenges

Abstract

In [91] Susskind outlines the past use of Information Technology (IT), and indicates probable future uses of IT by the legal profession. He indicates that until recently, there was only limited use of IT by legal professionals. Whilst the use of word processing, office, automation, case management tools, client and case databases, electronic data/document interchange tools and fax machines is now standard, only recently have legal firms commenced using knowledge management techniques. The use of applied legal decision support systems is in its infancy. The development of intelligent systems in legal practice was investigated by [123]. They noted that most commercially successful systems have employed rules. The major reasons for this occurrence include that it is easy to model rules and there are many tools for building rule-based systems. Although many commentators including [64] clearly express reservations about this approach for the majority of fields of law, rule-based reasoning is still the predominant basis for legal decision support systems. The fundamental limitation not addressed by this view of law can be reduced to two significant omissions: (a) the failure to model open texture, and (b) the failure to provide an analysis of how justification differs from the process used to arrive at decisions. A decade later, in his description of commercial legal decision support systems build at the Donald Berman Laboratory for Information Technology and Law at La Trobe University, Zeleznikow notes that the