Predictive justice: Human vs. artificial intelligence challenge organized at the LegalTech village in Paris

During the second edition of the LegalTech Village, a competition was organized by Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory in France and its partner Predictice, a LegalTech startup, to measure human predictive capabilities compared to that of a predictive justice algorithm.

This contest was held in four rounds, each one dealing with a different legal issue. Each participant, faced with a practical case, had to provide an estimate of the probable outcome of the litigation (chance of success, amount of compensation or evolution of the number of disputes) of a dispute before the French courts. 210 participants took the contest during the two days of the event.

Predictice is a legaltech launched in January 2016 by a team of engineers and lawyers. Nearly two years of R & D were needed to develop the first version of this decision support solution for legal professionals. Wolters Kluwer in France is a leader in serving legal professionals with documentation, software and solutions, serving professionals since 1892. As part of an exclusive alliance to put the best of technology in the hands of legal professionals, the two companies entered into a strong technology and business partnership in the spring of 2017.

“Our two companies are driven by a common obsession: that of the quality of products that we offer to legal professionals,” said Louis Larret-Chahine / Co-founder and Managing Director of Predictice. “The accuracy of the analysis produced on Predictice was made possible by the extraordinary quality of the content (court decisions, dictionary, ontology) provided by Wolters Kluwer. Our ambition today is to make Predictice's technology a useful tool for legal professionals as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is for the medical profession.”

Predictive justice: The key is in the alliance of skills

The results are telling, even if they are to be put into perspective because of the composition of the panel which contained only 50% of legal professionals: whereas the solution of Predictice reaches reliability in the understanding of natural language superior to 96%, the majority of participants were not correct in anticipating the outcome of the same cases.

To the question of the evaluation of the amount obtained in compensation for the loss of enjoyment linked to abnormal neighborhood disturbances manifested by noise nuisances, the responses of the participants of the LegalTech Village ranged from 1 euro to 7 million euros. The correct answer is 8330 euros, it can be calculated by Predictice in less than one second by any legal professional on the platform.

To another question, concerning the evolution of litigation invoking sexual harassment at work between 2012 and the year 2017 (until beginning of December), most of the participants have assessed the upward trend, but have had a lot of difficulty to evaluate it. For example, 10% of respondents thought that litigation had increased by more than 2900%. The right answer was 47%.

“Predictice's technology, combined with Wolters Kluwer France's content and know-how, has led to results that exceeded our initial expectations,” said Isabelle Bussel, Managing Director Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory in France. “The technological transformation of the legal profession, which is now advancing rapidly in France, will enable professionals to strengthen their added value and help them make decisions with and for their clients. The competition organized during these two days has of course an exclusively pedagogic objective. The goal of the alliance is absolutely not to build a robot judge, able to make decisions alone. On the contrary, the goal is to strengthen the analytical capacity of the best lawyers, much like an X-ray helps a doctor to establish a diagnosis and make a decision for effective care.”

Professionals also realize the new capabilities to be gained. Sophie Clanchet / CEO Eurojuris France notes that, “EUROJURIS is the first lawyer network to have a predictive justice solution in France. All law firms in our network have access to Predictice, a quality, innovative and powerful tool, supported by Wolters Kluwer with whom we already work with confidence. Predictive justice does not replace the lawyer, but offers a complementary solution to our expertise.”

As explained in the report of the Center for Research and Studies of Lawyers, published in October 2017, humans on their own (those who do not recognize the contribution of technology), just like machines on their own (built to replace humans) will never be as powerful as humans and machines together. This is the key to this challenge. Indeed, once a statistical overview of possible judicial futures has been obtained, it is obviously up to the professional to finalize the most difficult task, that of interpretation and decision-making (negotiation, litigation).

The feedback of the first law firms using the Predictice solution, sold in France since the summer of 2017, are positive. They are unanimous on the fact that Predictice helps them to communicate with their customers using objective figures, while customers sometimes arrive with unrealistic expectations. Other benefits include the ability to provision risks more precisely, which is a requirement audited yearly by auditors.

The Predictice and Wolters Kluwer teams are now focused on using technology to further strengthen the value added of the solution for their law firms and legal departments clients.

About Predictice

Predictice is a legal research and analysis platform that places technology at the service of legal professionals. The solution provides access to case law via a unique search bar, in natural language.