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A successful Australian service that uses Artificial Intelligence to enhance the way family lawyers interact with their clients has officially launched in the UK.
The International Family Law Group LLP is the first family law firm to host the online system (called Settify). Already popular in Australia, it allows clients to get started on providing their relationship history and provides instant and personalised information anywhere at any time.
Stuart Clark, a partner at iFLG who, with fellow partner Michael Allum, translated the model for the English market said
“Settify allows clients to provide information on their relationship status anywhere, any time. The online system will assimilate this information and provide a clear set of instructions for the lawyers. This is particularly beneficial for clients as it cuts initial costs and helps to speed up the process of their case.”
Created by family lawyers and launched in Melbourne in February 2017, Settify has won more than 3,400 new matters for its partner firms, representing legal disputes worth more than AUD7.2bn (£4bn) in aggregate. The technology has won several awards for innovation and is now ‘the new norm’ in Australia and New Zealand, with over 100 firms adopting the system since its inception, including most of the independently ranked ‘top tier’ and ‘pre-eminent’ firms.
iFLG’s lawyers contributed their expertise to ‘translating’ the Australian model of the system to make it suited to the different legislation and procedures in England and Wales.
David Hodson OBE, iFLG partner commented
“We are very clear that this is a way forward for the profession in family law and it will sort out the forward thinkers from the dinosaurs. This will not mean that work leaves law firms. Instead, it will make it easier, faster, and more attractive for clients to work with family lawyers.”
Settify is available for new clients prior to their first meeting and the system can be found on the iFLG website. It instantly provides clients with a broad range of customised, helpful information, and collects the details their family lawyer will need to advise, to progress disclosure and start immediately to consider possible directions to a settlement. Clients have the opportunity at the outset to explain what is important to them in the family law process. It gives them an uninterrupted voice.
Max Paterson, CEO and Principal Family Lawyer at Settify said:
"It helps lawyers save time, provide a cost-effective service, and delight new clients. We are now opening this up for leading UK firms who want to be at the forefront of innovation in Family Law”.
