Law Times

Page 8 November 27, 2017 • Law Times www.lawtimesnews.com Artificial intelligence to impact personal injury law BY SHANNON KARI For Law Times T he term artificial intel- ligence was first coined by a math professor in the United States in 1955 and initially developed as an academic discipline. In recent years, rapid technologi- cal changes have led to major developments in the field and "machine learning systems" are likely to have impacts across the board, including the legal pro- fession. The personal injury field is no exception, both in terms of how these systems might be put to use by insurers and potential benefits for legal research to as- sist clients in a much more time- effective manner. Earlier this year, two of the larger multi-national insurance companies started to use arti- ficial intelligence to deal with claims. Processing time could be cut to as little as five seconds to de- cide on a claim, a senior official at Zurich Insurance told Reuters this spring. The industry is also making increasing use of "chat- bots" — "virtual assistants" that can answer basic questions from customers contacting the com- pany through a phone app. The benefits of AI for the insurance sector are obvious, but what is still not clear is the impact on clients who have suffered a personal injury and might want to challenge the claim decision. Michael Giordano, a Toron- to-based personal injury lawyer, says it is an issue that the plain- tiff-side bar needs to be prepared to handle. "It is only a matter of time before this technology is used in Canada," says Giordano, a part- ner at Avanessy Giordano LLP. "From the plaintiff 's side, this may present challenges. In ev- ery case, there is an element of optics. There may be a subtlety that requires a human eye. Can this all be captured by an algo- rithm?" Giordano asks. Once the technology is introduced here, personal injury lawyers should try to find out more about the formulas used to make claims decisions, he suggests. "Which factor is given the most weight and does that skew the result? The upside, though, is there might be efficiencies that eliminate some of the earlier stag- es in litigation," says Giordano. Robert Deutschmann agrees that the technology could have some advantages for clients. "If it is speeding up the process and it results in an earlier resolu- tion of the claim, that would be a benefit," says Deutschmann, who heads Deustchmann Law in Kitchener, Ont. "Still, the human element can be key," he adds. As well, insurance compa- nies have long utilized technolo- gies, such as asking drivers to put trackers on their vehicles in exchange for lower rates, which may not always end up as a ben- efit to the client, Deutschmann notes. The use of AI by insurance companies to speed up decisions on claims is not the only aspect of the technology that is likely to impact personal injury lawyers and their clients. There are also potential benefits. Legal research is just one example. Thomson Reuters, for exam- ple, joined with IBM in 2015 to make use of AI in the legal field. E-discovery products and other research tools are among the services that have been de- veloped. There have also been ad- vances in using AI to speed up research of relevant case law, when searching for relevant precedents to assist in litigation. "Any time that can be saved is going to be helpful," says Deutschmann. "As well, AI might be able to bring a diagnostic element to the search. In personal injury law, we are telling the story of the client. If in building that story there is a tool that can assist in evaluating the information, that will be beneficial," he says. At the same time, Deutschmann stresses that a lawyer can't rely only on ma- chine-made decisions and abdi- cate the responsibility to the cli- ent. Research is not the only area where advances in AI might be helpful to lawyers and not only in the personal injury field. Voice recognition is rapidly improving in terms of speed and accuracy. An article in the July 2017 issue of the Harvard Business Review entitled "The Business of Artificial Intelli- gence" noted that speech recog- nition is now, on average, about three times as fast as typing on a smartphone. The error rate also dropped to just less than five per cent. The authors of the piece stated that they dictated the article to a computer and it was faster than typing. The legal profession and the courts in Ontario and other provinces are not always quick to make use of new technologies, even if there are clear benefits, notes Giordano. It is only in recent years that some lawyers have provided iPads to juries in civil trials, to reduce the amount of paper documents and make exhibits and other information easily ac- cessible. "They are now widely accepted," says Giordano. At the same time, "there are two schools of thought" when it comes to iPads in civil jury tri- als, says Deutschmann. "When you are going through your questions of a wit- ness, are they following along?" he asks, although he agrees that notebooks and pens for jurors can be equally distracting dur- ing trials. Advances in AI along with the wealth of information that is stored in our smartphones and other devices such as fit- ness trackers may also be helpful to plaintiffs in personal injury litigation, depending on the data and its level of accuracy. "This is evidence that still needs to be contextualized. But it is another piece of the puzzle," says Giordano. LT FOCUS ON Personal Injury Law Michael Giordano says personal injury lawyers should try to find out more about the formulas used to make decisions, once artificial intelligence is used for processing claims. FOCUS HENDERSON STRUCTURED SETTLEMENTS LP Our dedicated legal, brokerage, financial, and administrative teams provide the most thorough and expedient service to each and every client. We invite you to contact us today. You can count on us! THE MOST THOROUGH & EXPEDIENT SERVICE GUARANTEED. PROUD SPONSOR OF SPINAL CORD INJURY ONTARIO AND THE ONTARIO BRAIN INJURY ASSOCIATION PROUD SUPPORTER OF MADD CANADA 905.523.6000 | 1.800.263.8537 www.henderson.ca Untitled-1 1 2017-03-09 9:07 AM

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