Software Agents in the Practice of Law

Abstract

The paper is devoted to the analysis of such legal technology as the use of software agents in law practice. The paper substantiates the relevance of the research topic, gives the concept of a software agent, and provides their classification. Special attention is paid to intelligent software agents, their types used in the implementation of legal activities. The paper provides examples of intelligent software agents-bots used in legal practice; user agents, predictive agents and data search agents that select and analyze information in large data warehouses in order to systematize it, classify and identify trends in individual indicators. It is concluded that the use of software agents in legal practice can be considered as a kind of legal technology in the event that it entails a legally significant result and certain legal consequences. A software agent acts as one of the structural elements of legal technology — a means of carrying out legal activity, a means of achieving a legal result, and the very use of this tool in legal practice is a legal technology. This technology is assigned to certain types depending on various classification criteria. Based on the materials of domestic and foreign legal practice, the author provides specific examples of harm caused by activities carried out with the help of software agents. The author outlines the problems of using software agents in law practice that require further examination.