Key Trends in Consumer Policy

Background Paper to Creating Confident Consumers

May 2003

Previous Page / Table of Contents / Next Page

The Future Provision of Legal Information

• E-Government
  • Possible Developments
• The Technology Lag
  • The Latent Legal Market

E-Government

With the creation of the e-government website [10] the Government has signalled the future of information provision from government to citizens. This first-generation portal is intended to evolve. Initially it will provide access to information and services for individuals, businesses and communities, but eventually it will also deliver information and services from key NGOs. [11]

MCA's own future strategic direction in relation to the delivery of information to consumers aligns well with the Government's overarching vision: to allow the easy flow of information within and between government organisations, and between government and people. [12]

Possible Developments

Professor Susskind sums it up well when he says:

The reality today is that our ability to use IT to capture, store, retrieve, and reproduce information wildly surpasses our ability to use technology to help analyse, refine, and manage the mass of information which conventional "data processing" itself has created for us.

(Susskind, 2000 p9)

For example, New Zealand's legislation is now available free for browsing, downloading and reproduction off the Internet; eventually the government and consumers may ask whether more value can be added to that resource by more refined metadata standards that enable analysis and smart searches.

Professor Susskind is writing about the interaction between information technology and the future of law. There are two central concepts to his thesis which are of interest-the technology stage and the latent legal market.

The Technology Lag

This refers to the gap between "knowledge processing" and "data processing". It is the transitory stage society is in currently, where print-based information is merely supported and supplemented by technology-based information. Thanks to the age of data processing, consumers are able to access massive quantities of data on the Internet, but the legal material available can be of such complexity that it may be impenetrable to anyone other than specialist audiences.

Susskind predicts that this era, where technology seems to give us less rather than more control over information demands, will be replaced by the arrival of smarter technologies such as artificial intelligence and expert systems. Research and development in technology will encourage the delivery of proactive and personalised information to consumers.

They will not replace conventional legal services, but they will provide affordable, easy access to legal guidance where many have [been] unaffordable or impractical in the past.

(Susskind, 2000, p260)

The Latent Legal Market

This "market" consists of all those situations when a consumer may have benefited from legal information or advice, but any one of a number of factors has prevented them from obtaining it. For example, consumers may think they need advice from a solicitor and not consider contact with a government agency, or may not even know that their problem gives rise to a question of law at all. Susskind argues that this "market" of consumers can be liberated by the availability of straightforward online legal information, which is characterised not by extensive narrative but by eliminating irrelevant information, pinpointing pertinent information, produced in plain language that tells consumers precisely what they want to know and nothing else.

Future generations of consumers will see the Internet as the first port of call when they are seeking information and they may well demand free access to legal information and/or guidance from a source they trust to advise them correctly-the government. There are obvious limitations to the type of information that agencies such as MCA can provide on the Internet, but there is huge potential for MCA and other government agencies to take a collaborative approach to the pro-active provision of legal information to consumers. [13]

Work of this kind has already begun: the New Zealand Law Foundation and the Department of Courts have produced a report (McKechnie, 2002) on the provision of judicial and court information to the public through the use of the Internet.

The Law Foundation is expected to decide imminently whether to begin work on an Internet portal for case law information. While this portal will not provide access to free legal information (Dominion Post, 2002) it may be a key step along the path to such a future.

Professor Susskind provides some helpful analysis of the future of legal information generally, and the role of government agencies in ensuring that consumers have access to the knowledge they need to be effective participants in society.

For example, when a consumer buys faulty goods or considers the difference between entering a hire purchase, revolving credit or lease agreement, they could have at their fingertips practical, focused and applicable guidance to assist them to make a decision. He offers a list of ways that information technology could help in offering public access to the law; a number of which are either in existence or currently being developed in New Zealand. Of interest to MCA in particular are the following:

• A portal offering public access to law-a master website or gateway to legal services. Consistent with the e-government strategy, the links and guidance would not be listed under conventional classifications but orientated towards real-life events (e.g. buying a car, improving your credit rating, or private sales of goods).
• Online legal guidance systems-to help consumers understand their rights and obligations and appreciate how to enforce those rights, and to offer preventative legal guidance. These guidance systems recognise that many consumers are not familiar with the many advantageous legal facilities available today, such that there is often little possibility of achieving legal health promotion.
• Greater empowerment of the voluntary sector by providing legal information facilities which will extend the capability and areas of competence of, for example, CABX and Community Law Centres.

Other agencies have already begun work on these and other areas. [14] Other initiatives being considered may, for example, allow electronic filing of Court documents and electronic dispute resolution. The benefits of interacting with consumers over the Internet are only beginning to be understood, and the above is just a short overview of some of the possibilities on offer.

[10] www.govt.nz.

[11] Summary of the draft portal strategy. It is of course likely that technological innovation will enable the e-govt portal to develop beyond what can be currently envisaged.

[12] ibid.

[13] If consumers become conditioned over time to undertake Internet information searches prior to transacting, pro-active advice aimed at healthy decision making will lessen the demand for post-transactional redress.

[14] The Department of Labour is running the Digital Divide project, which refers to the gap between those New Zealanders who have access to information and communications technology and those who do not-essentially MCA's target consumers. The project is also focusing on increasing the IT literacy of consumers.

Previous Page / Table of Contents / Next Page