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06 February 2015 / Roger Smith
Issue: 7639 / Categories: Opinion , Human rights
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Texas hold’em

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Roger Smith reports on a busy start to 2015

The Legal Services Corporation (the federal US legal aid funder) held its 15th annual Technology Initiatives Grant conference in San Antonio this year. The town is best known for the Alamo; the death of Davy Crockett (whose most memorable quote is celebrated on widely available fridge magnets—“You can all go to hell, I am going to Texas”); and as a tourist destination. During the cheap season in January, 290 techies and interested managers turned up to discuss the latest advances in the use of technology in delivering legal services to the poor. To their great credit, the organisers began with an international session—dominated by the two jurisdictions most at the cutting edge of developments—the Netherlands and British Columbia. Thus, there was a presentation of the impressive latest version (2.0) of the Dutch Rechtwijzer project and British Columbia’s online end to end, advice to resolution programme—the civil resolution tribunal—both of which are due to go fully live this year.

The core of the conference was provided by presentations

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Bell Yard Kysen—Liz Giles

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NEWS
The Attorney General, Ellie Reeves KC MP, and Solicitor General, Andy Slaughter KC MP, marked the 25th anniversary of Pro Bono Week by joining lawyers, charities, students and parliamentarians at events celebrating voluntary legal work
A polished legal defence may owe more to artificial intelligence than legal merit—and creditors risk paying the price in delay and expense
Witness evidence can be compromised by AI before a solicitor sees the draft, leaving safeguards focused on authorship incomplete
Possession claims are entering a new digital era, with procedural traps awaiting practitioners who assume familiar rules still govern every step
The Environment Agency can prosecute offences beyond environmental legislation where proceedings support its statutory functions, the Divisional Court has confirmed
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