A judge in a 3D helmet? Where are we headed?

Rikki Mawad says robots, automation are the way of the future for many jobs

I AM digitally literate but I still like to read a hard copy of the newspaper, hold a book, listen to the radio out of my old cd/cassette player and have never owned a TV.

At a recent meeting with colleagues from the School of Information and Community Technology, I listened with a mix of fear and curiosity about what advances in technology would mean for lawyers, for the justice system and for all of us into the future.

Half jokingly, I asked whether we could expect to see a judge sitting alone in chambers wearing an astronaut like 3D visualisation helmet over her wig, convening a virtual courtroom with avatars representing the accused, the complainant, the lawyers and jurors.

Thankfully, I did not laugh. Their very serious faces indicated that this was exactly what was possible.

My colleagues excitedly talked about projects that could use machine learning and artificial intelligence in a way that would effectively eradicate the jobs of any lawyer aside from a specialist Barrister.

While they saw infinite potential for the use of technology in the law, I was left wondering what this really meant for the administration of justice, the future of the legal profession and legal education.

After this conversation, I read a little further on the use of machine learning and automation of legal jobs.

The big firms worldwide are already investing in and exploiting new technology that could replace the jobs of most lawyers below Associate level in the next decade.

For now, that technology is being used to do a lot of the routine legal work, allowing lawyers to focus on specialist advocacy and advice.

Even so, there is collective uncertainty about what working in the law will look like into the future.

What sort of job security will anyone have, or is the idea of an ongoing position going to be an anachronism too?

If computers replace lawyers, will we be participating in a virtual courtroom anytime soon?

Given we have only recently embedded videoconferencing capability in some courts in Tasmania, it seems some way off before the legal system embraces new technology like 3D visualisation, avatars or a robo-judge in the administration of justice.

Yet, there is a huge opportunity in Tasmania through the Justice Connect project and the Digital Transformation Program to take the first steps towards data linkages and, according to my colleagues in ICT, the 3D visualisation of that data.

For those of us working in legal education and research, we must also consider what we need to do to transform our practice and outputs to ensure that we are equipping the next generation of lawyers to succeed in an ever-changing working environment.

Their serious faces indicated that this was exactly what was possible.

For the University of Tasmania, that requires a parallel investment in the knowledge curators and educators who, too, will be leading change.

Machine learning and the automation of jobs are not just challenges for lawyers, the pervasiveness of technology is something that we all have an interest in.

With predictions that 80 per cent of workers in Australia could be affected by the automation of jobs and the rise of technology, it is critical we equip everyone with the skills and agility to use technology, not be replaced by it.

Fortunately, there are conversations starting about the future of work in Tasmania and what role the university as a whole can play in shaping teaching, learning and research that leads change. Join us to be part of that conversation today. The Future of Work forum is at the University of Tasmania in Sandy Bay today from 6pm. Go to www.events.utas.edu.au to register. Rikki Mawad is Tasmania Law Reform Institute assistant director, a Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne and Sessional Lecturer in Law at the University of Tasmania. She is a graduate of the Tasmanian Leaders Program. These are her own opinions.