Private Lives – Instant family law at your fingertips
9 January 2020
Birketts’ Family Law Team has become one of the first to adopt an online system which uses artificial intelligence to interact with individuals, providing them with free, instant, customised information, relevant to their circumstances.
The online tool known as ‘Settify’ provides a highly personalised induction to family law, as is relevant to the individual, based on the information they provide by answering a series of questions. The system can be accessed via the family law pages of the Birketts’ website. The questionnaire can be completed for almost all family-related legal matters, including those which relate to divorce, separation, prenuptial agreements, child support and child maintenance, and foreign marriages and divorces. It can also be used in relation to disputes over the ownership of property after the breakdown of a relationship.
The program takes the individual through the relevant pathways, asking questions to gather the information a lawyer would need to know in order to be able to provide personalised advice. It then uses artificial intelligence to provide the individual with a bespoke report based on those answers.
The questions asked by the system can be answered in the individual’s own time. As the process can be paused and re-visited at any point, there is no pressure on the client to complete the process all at once and they can come back to it at their convenience.
Using Settify does not create a solicitor – client relationship; it simply generates a free, instant personalised information pack for the individual. The system is confidential and secure. Birketts will not receive your information unless you request an appointment, specifically by clicking this option within the system. There is no obligation to request an appointment. If you do choose to do so, one of the members of the family team will contact you to arrange a meeting at a time convenient for you.
Settify allows our family lawyers to better serve our clients as the system collects the necessary background information in relation to an individual (details about their family, assets and income etc.) before the initial meeting. This ensures that the lawyer in the first meeting can focus on giving the advice the individual requires, discussing any options available and determining a way forward, without the individual needing to go into detail with regards to their background. Settify brings more value to the client, allowing them to save time and reducing their costs.
Completing the online questionnaire also helps the individual prepare for the first meeting, giving them the opportunity to learn about family law as is relevant to their case. The individual will be asked to think about particular decisions before the meeting, which they may not otherwise have considered. This facilitates a meeting which is focussed on providing advice, options and solutions for clients.
For further advice, please contact Molly Barker or a member of our Family Team.
This article is from the winter 2019 / 2020 issue of Private Lives, our newsletter covering the key legal and tax issues that individuals face. To download the latest issue, please visit the newsletter section of our website.
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The content of this article is for general information only. It is not, and should not be taken as, legal advice. If you require any further information in relation to this article please contact the author in the first instance. Law covered as at January 2020.