Although we provide legal services in a different way than before – online, specialised and with automated administrative processes … – but still in strict compliance with all legal regulations. Values such as confidentiality, avoiding conflicts of interest, professionalism and integrity are also our core mantra. As a leader in the Czech online market, repeatedly awarded as Retail Law Firm of the Year, they have long been a matter of course for us. Something we have never and will never discount.
However, we are aware that current trends are changing. People are shopping online and legal advice is no exception to this. We are bucking this trend and strengthening the legal profession to meet the challenges posed by changing consumer behaviour.
The legal profession faces a number of challenges in today’s world. If we get them right, new markets can open up, and people can use lawyers who would not have thought of doing so just a few months ago. Advocacy, especially retail advocacy, will become more accessible: in terms of price, contact and content.
So how do we approach our business – and our mission – at Affordable Advocate?
1. Confidentiality, Confidentiality and Dostupný advokát: Even More Strictly
Without confidentiality and secrecy, advocacy would be meaningless. For attorneys, but especially for their clients. This is doubly true in online advocacy. When you’re not sitting at the same table, you need to be very sure that nothing of your conversation gets out. Plus, you only get one chance: trust usually can’t be regained. You either have it or you don’t.
That’s why at Dostupný advokát, we use an encrypted interface to communicate through our system and protect the data honestly. Of course, we only use secure servers and two-factor authentication on all access, including email. (Did you know that many attorneys still use freemail on Seznam.cz to handle their work mail?)
In this context, we also welcome the Czech Bar Association’s interpretive position on the provision of legal services online. However, we followed the rules contained therein even before it was issued. And we are actually even stricter on ourselves than the CBA requires.
2. Client Communication and Dostupný advokát: Multiple verifications
But who do we actually communicate with as “clients” when practicing online advocacy? And how can and should we verify their true identity? Could it be an opposing party, for example? In Dostupný advokát we have this well covered.
We do not deal in templates or legal blanks. Thus, from the first moment and at all times, our clients always communicate with professionally trained staff who respect the principles of confidentiality. Consistent avoidance of conflicts of interest has long been a matter of course for the Dostupný advokát.
We have handled the legal affairs of thousands of different clients, so years ago we implemented a robust automated system to “alert” us to potential conflicts of interest based on client input and our system. So before a lawyer takes on a matter, he or she can see a potential conflict of interest with a specific other engagement and can even check it out. We will gradually incorporate artificial intelligence tools into this system. So that everything is even better covered and the evaluation of potential conflicts of interest is done with absolute precision and automatically. We strictly adhere to the AML rules. We also always communicate by phone and verify the identity of the client, sometimes, for example, via CZECHpoint.
The client’s trust is paramount to us. Many of them often contact us precisely to be sure that their attorney will not be influenced in any way, for example by local conditions or relationships. Moreover, our system is designed in such a way that attorneys do not see all orders, but always only those they are working on. This guarantees confidentiality also inside the system.
3. Competition and the Affordable Lawyer: rather a complement and an alternative
Can online advocacy be a fierce competitor to traditional advocacy? Could it represent a real disruption of the legal market? What can and cannot be done in the law business? The key words are speed, expertise and affordability. But also automation and soon artificial intelligence. What do we mean by this at Affordable Lawyer?
Affordable Advocate has been built from the start as a first class service, not a competitor to anyone. A service to a specific client, but also a service to the entire justice system. The more people who receive expert legal representation, the more sophisticated the whole society will be. Official and judicial processes will be more efficient and far fairer. With this conviction we founded the Dostupný advokát, this is how we are building it and this is how we will continue to develop the project.
We do not see advocacy as a mud wrestling match. On the contrary, we welcome the representation of opposing parties; it is usually easier to reach a constructive solution. We never drive our clients into conflict at any cost. And our fellow attorneys make it easier to reach an amicable solution that benefits both parties.
As in any business, however, market laws and unwritten rules of competition apply in advocacy. Advocacy is a traditional business, strongly bound by regulation. This is usually to the benefit of clients, but in some cases the code of ethics can lead to an artificially less competitive environment and thus, paradoxically, to a weakening of advocacy as a whole. Yes, weakening and not strengthening, because a rule that everyone breaks is not a rule. Unfortunately, there are several such rules in the Code of Ethics. We at The Dostupný advokát are sensitive to this and do not consider it the best way forward.
Indeed, even for the legal profession, there is an unrelenting pressure for greater efficiency, less bureaucracy in dealing with clients’ legal matters, and generally easier access to counsel. That’s why we are going down the road of price transparency, pushing for speed in order processing and integrating technology into our systems to a degree never before seen in the legal profession. All of this also includes working hard with client feedback and a money-back guarantee.
Competition – as we intend to operate it – means, above all, dramatically improving the quality of service for clients of Dostupný advokát. It’s about speed, expertise and affordability. And that brings us back to square one.
4. Advertising and Affordable Advocate: For the benefit of clients
There are still a lot of myths about advertising in and about the legal profession. First of all, it is not forbidden! Lawyers can draw potential clients’ attention to their activities. In our opinion, they even have to. Because without attorneys, there is no justice. And so it is mainly to the benefit of clients to learn that, for example, our Dostupný advokát exists.
At Dostupný advokát, we use all the standard channels of the marketing mix. We order targeted PPC ads, as well as actively create our media image, such as through educational and awareness series in the media. In news coverage, we often offer our commentary on currently pending legal issues and explain complex matters in human terms.
But mainly we educate consumers on legal issues. And most importantly: under the banner of the Affordable Lawyer, we have built the most visited legal content website in the Czech Republic. Our presentation, however, is never pandering, unrealistic, misleading or uncollegial. We stick to that, even if we don’t think it’s the right advertising setup for attorneys in all respects. In some cases, the Czech Bar Association’s approach to advertising is rather behind the times in which we live.
In short, even when it comes to advertising and PR, we stick to our credo: expertise, specialisation, dignity.
5. Artificial Intelligence and Dostupný advokát: Improving and Multiplying Potential
Artificial intelligence will begin to play a dominant role in law in the foreseeable future – in the order of magnitude of years at most. It doesn’t matter what anyone thinks about it, it’s just going to happen. At The Affordable Lawyer, we have no doubt about it, and we are preparing for it. And we’re happy to share our experience and tools with our partners.
Artificial intelligence won’t take away our work, on the contrary, it will help us make it more efficient. In fact, in many ways, it is already happening. Today, AI is helping Dostupný advokát clients with basic guidance on their problems. They communicate with our online assistant AI.DA, which is able to answer basic questions and works on the basis of ChatGPT. He uses the content of the Affordable Advocate website, the most visited legal content website in the Czech Republic, to answer questions.
We are already planning the launch of a significantly improved version of AI.DA, which will be able to identify legal assignments at a basic level and streamline the client’s journey to the lawyer. In fact, it will conduct the initial consultation. Artificial intelligence can then, with the right tools, also facilitate the work of the lawyer and help solve the shortage of junior colleagues who are often not interested in entering the legal profession.
AI will thus help kill three birds with one stone: it will make the lawyer’s work more efficient and better, take him out of the routine, allow him to focus on the really important things and multiply his working potential. Artificial intelligence does not threaten the legal business as such, quite the opposite. An affluent society will increasingly use the services of lawyers. But the development of the law business may be stuck on the lack of capable and client-oriented people. As is evident, however, this is exactly what AI will help with.
Plus: Online Advocacy, Dostupný advokát and Assistance to Regions
Are you thinking, like us at The Dostupný advokát, about how online advocacy can help regions – even with the current flood damage? And about the fact that it is in the provision of legal services online that makes legal services accessible to the widest possible range of people? That online advocacy can also make the world a fairer place and the law more accessible and affordable?
Of course, it also means that new markets are opening up for lawyers because of the demand for online advice. People are starting to use our services – and this will be even more pronounced in the future – who wouldn’t have thought of it before, perhaps even just a few months ago. What’s more, they’re often using it to solve simple problems and draw up basic contracts, which they used to do quite often on their knees.
It is precisely these clients that we try to accommodate as much as possible, and it is for them that Affordable Lawyer works. Thus, we do not compete primarily with traditional advocacy, but rather complement it. This way, we are also pushing out of the market those who just sell general model solutions or avoid the regulation of the Czech Bar Association for various reasons. This means an unpleasant risk for those who use their services. This is also what we try to prevent in our activities – including our educational activities.
We believe that there will always be a demand for a “live” Czech lawyer, whom we can bring to the most remote location in the Czech mountains, but also to the Australian bush. This live lawyer is subject to standard supervision and fulfils all the regulations, he is a trained professional and can really help the client. He can also be a narrowly focused “Prague” specialist if he is in demand in the regions. The only difference is that clients who use the services of an Dostupný advokát usually speak and communicate with him remotely.
