Supreme Court Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo (FILE PHOTO)
Despite the automation of many legal tasks and services, Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo assured lawyers that they would not become irrelevant because of their “primary role as officers of the court.”
During the convention of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) Eastern and Western Visayas chapters held in Cebu City on Thursday, Gesmundo urged lawyers to embrace the technological advances on law practice.
He acknowledged that certain legal services have become more technology-driven than labor-intensive, such as drafting and reviewing contracts, legal research and procuring licenses from administrative bodies.
The availability of online legal advice and dispute resolution has reduced legal services to a “mere commodity in the virtual marketplace,” he added.
Indispensable
However, the prosecution and defense of criminal cases are among the tasks of members of the legal profession that cannot be standardized in a computer program, the chief justice pointed out.
“Lawyers may be outperformed by computer applications involving routine tasks and those which dispense basic information on provisions of the law and procedural rules,” Gesmundo said.
“But [computer application] cannot argue for a client’s cause or evaluate evidentiary values in any given case. Indeed, for as long as adjudication involves a process of human reasoning in the application and interpretation of the law, the legal profession will never fade into the virtual future,” he stressed.
“For as long as governments cannot function without a judicial system, the legal profession stays since counsels and advocates have an indispensable role in the administration of justice,” he added.
Five-year plan
The Supreme Court will launch on Friday its five-year strategic plan for judicial innovations until 2027.
Gesmundo said the strategic plan involves more than the infusion of technology into court processes because it gives equal importance to the role of counsels and judges.
“All these innovations, even the latest technology will not guarantee that justice will be served on litigants. For the quality of justice that is dispensed by the courts largely depends on the services of lawyers,” he said.
“And while the rendition of legal services may have transitioned online, lawyers must bear in mind that they remain strictly bound by their oath and the ethical rules of the legal profession,” he added.
READ: CJ Gesmundo to judges: You can count on us