The legal practice, as an independent\nservice which aims to provide legal assistance to individuals and legal\nentities, represent a constitutional category in our legal system whose\norganisation and work are regulated in detail by the Law on Attorneys’ Profession of the Republic of\nSrpska. As any other areas of social life and work, the legal services market\nis essentially transformed due to the globalisation and the emergence of modern\ntechnologies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The process of technological\ndevelopment has led to the expansion of the electronic contract conclusion\nphenomenon in relation to the sale and purchase of goods or providing various\nservices. Electronic commerce, i.e. exchange of goods and services, primarily\ntakes place through web sites and mobile applications, and it is followed with\nconclusion of various types of contracts. Historically, the development of electronic\ncommerce began primarily with the appearance of internet sites for sale of\ngoods, so Amazon<\/em> was established in 1994 and just a year later, the E-bay<\/em>\nplatform emerged. Only later well-known platforms for the provision of services\nover internet have appeared (Paypal<\/em> \u2013\n1998, Booking<\/em> \u2013 1996, but only after\nconnecting with Booking Online<\/em> 2000\nit achieved today’s function, Airbnb<\/em> \u2013 2008, etc.). Today, if you\nwant to travel to another city or abroad, it is almost inconceivable that you\ndo not previously make a reservation of accommodation (and payment) through\nwebsites like Booking <\/em>or Airbnb<\/em>. In the United States, as well as\nin the western European countries, there is service of taxi transportation by\nthe Uber<\/em> Company. According to that, the name was given to a new\nphenomenon on the electronic market of goods and services, so called Uberization,\nwhich represents the operating model of business and transaction management\nusing modern internet platforms, with maximum cost and time savings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The key to the success of\napplications such as Airbnb<\/em> or Uber<\/em> lies in the confidence that\nservice users have in the system, and only then in the immediate service\nprovider that provides their services through the said internet platforms. In\nother words, once you book accommodation through Airbnb<\/em>, you don’t do it because you trust the\nperson who owns the accommodation and who announce the same, but because you\ntrust that anyone who provides services through Airbnb <\/em>meets certain\ncriteria and conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The question is whether it is\npossible to expect similar changes in the market of lawyer services, i.e.\nwhether in the future we can expect the so-called uberization of the legal\nprofession and the provision of legal services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The previous assumption that had to\nbe fulfilled in order to introduce the uberization of the\nlegal profession is shifting the focus of legal services from classic\nrepresentation in court proceedings to legal consulting services, precisely\nwith an aim to prevent possible disputes in business practice. Further\ndevelopment, driven by globalization and the need for a more favourable\nbusiness environment, requires a certain degree of deregulation of the practice\nof law, in order to provide more flexible conditions for the provision of\nservices in this field. If at some point in the development of our market\nappears an application intended for the provision of legal services, which\nwould be based on the sharing economy<\/em> and peer-to-peer basis then it would\ncreate a possibility to get services from experts in various fields of law\nwhile staying in the comfort and convenience of your own home, while you would\npay the said using electronic banking. The service would be available to the\nservice user for 24 hours a day, and due to the growth of competition,\nindividuals, as well as small and medium-sized enterprises, would have easier\naccess to the required legal services with less time and money. In addition, a\ngreat advantage of such a service is the lesser formality and the absence of\nthe need to visit a lawyer’s office in order to obtain a legal advice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The algorithms for recognising an adequate\nexpert to provide a service in a particular case would be based on the data\nentered into the application relating to the facts of the subject legal matter,\nthe area of \u200b\u200blaw to which the potential service relates, the satisfaction of\nprevious users of the services, etc. This would ensure greater efficiency and\ntransparency of the service provided, and the client could have an advance\nestimate of the price for the legal advice provided. This would force service\nproviders to achieve a maximum efficiency and productivity, with a constant\ncommitment to develop its services due to the market competitiveness, which\nwould ultimately benefit service users in terms of increased security and\nquality of service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The large law firms and companies\nthat keep pace with technological developments and provide their services with the\nmost exceptional standards of professionalism and commitment to the client\nwould soon be profiled as leaders on such platforms. However, more flexible\nregulations in this area would also lead to the emergence of so-called\nfreelancers, i.e. lawyers who are not employed by large firms and who provide\nlegal services at significantly lower fees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although, at first glance, it would\nappear that the emergence of freelancers in the market of the provision of\nlegal services would constitute a negative phenomenon for larger law firms and\ncompanies, it should equally consider the potential advantages that these\nentities would have from the phenomenon of freelance providers through online\nplatforms. The most considerable advantage would be the ability to hire freelancers as external consultants to\nwork on ambitious projects that require experts in a broad range of legal fields.\nIf, for example, a law firm does not have a specialist in its respective team,\nwho is specialized in a particular field of \u200b\u200blaw, the firm could then hire a freelancer,\non the basis of a certain type of work contract, and thus compensate for this\nshortcoming and enable the firm to participate in such projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The new rules set\nby the UK Solicitors Regulation\nAuthority<\/em>, according\nto which from November 2019 a solicitor can provide legal advice as freelancer,\nwithout the need to register an independent office or a firm, show that such\nmarket appearances are not a distant future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Time will show whether the uberization of the practice of law in our market is possible and in which direction it will move. Currently, all these visionary changes may never materialise, and the practice of law may retain its classic physiognomy. On the other hand, using and providing legal consulting services through online platforms for 10 or 20 years could be just as common as use of Airbnb <\/em>or Booking<\/em> today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Author: Igor Letica, Junior Associate<\/p>\n\n\n\n E:mail: igor@afsajic.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The legal practice, as an independent service which aims to provide legal assistance to individuals and legal entities, represent a constitutional category in our…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[91],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/advokatskafirmasajic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/advokatskafirmasajic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/advokatskafirmasajic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advokatskafirmasajic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advokatskafirmasajic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/advokatskafirmasajic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":614,"href":"https:\/\/advokatskafirmasajic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610\/revisions\/614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/advokatskafirmasajic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advokatskafirmasajic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advokatskafirmasajic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}