Legal advice chatbot to go head-to-head with living lawyers

An automated legal advice chatbot is set to go head-to-head with living lawyers this autumn.

Elexirr, formerly LawBot, was created by Cambridge University students last year. It speaks to potential litigants and claims to correctly predict the outcome of their claim with 71 per cent accuracy, before offering to match users with an appropriate law firm to take forward their claim.

Ludwig Bull, managing director of Elexirr, told Legal Futures his company is seeking to link up with a City law firm to host the contest.

An independent panel of judges or academics would supply problems with known outcomes, such as decided cases, to a team of living, leading lawyers and a team of chatbots from Elexirr.

The human and machine teams would then be challenged to predict the outcomes more accurately than their opponents.

Elexirr is also seeking a TV company interested in filming the contest.

Mr Bull said: “It will be very similar to the Watson Jeopardy challenge. It will convince the sceptics that we can do what we’re saying. Whatever happens that day will be a huge milestone for legal tech.”