Legal forms, inter-active legal consultancy and dispute resolution over the internet

Hi Richard:

As you observe the encroachment via the web on the realm of the lawyer has
not registered on the radar of the small firm and solo practitioner.  And
this is just the beginning ... the development of web based applications
beyond the filing in of forms presents the further prospect of delivering
customized legal information responsive to the needs of the user.

Where does the practice of law leave off and legal, that is a double
entendre, publishing begin.  Many in the profession would take the position
that the provisions of forms with instructions of any kind is tantamount to
the practice of law.  But here is where the web, being world wide, presents
a challenge to the regulation of the provisions of legal services (law
practice) by persons, lawyers or non-lawyers, accessing the web to provide
such services from a jurisdiction which does not regulate or tolerates the
activity.

This is certainly relevant to on-line dispute resolution as well.  Why
supply just forms and legal consultancy.  In the unregulated web
environment, it would be possible to establish a full fledged legal regime
for the resolution of disputes via on-line negotiation, mediation and
arbitration.  The parties. their representatives (lawyers or non-lawyer
consultants and representatives in the unregulated world wide web) as well
as the neutrals, mediators and arbitrators, can be located anywhere in the
world.
 ;
I think that I could predict that if such consultancy and representative
services were provided by an individual physically located here in Colorado
that they would be subject to regulation by the state of Colorado and that
the authorities here (the Colorado Supreme Court which regulates the
practice of law in Colorado) would likely find the activity to be the
unlawful unauthorized practice of law.

But what of a jurisdiction that takes a more limited view of what is the
practice of law requiring the individual involved to be a licensed.  What
would be permitted in the UK?

John

P.S. Join Richard Granat, co-chair of the ABA LPM eLawyering Task Force, in
the discussion of document delivery by non-law firmss over the web and its
implications at:
http://ombuds.org/cyberweek2005/index.php?topic=37.0 one of the Cyberweek
2005 discussion forums. J.


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