The law practice has evolved over the years beyond human comprehension. It has evolved beyond boundaries and still evolving as time goes on. However even as the legal practice has somewhat developed itself, there are still some areas that need to be developed.
These areas are:
FORENSIC ACCOUNTING:
Forensic Accounting can best be described as a meeting point between law and accounting. It is a combination of both accounting and law. Although not all lawyers have an interest in forensic accounting because of the calculations in-depth. However, more consideration should be given to it over the years.
TECHNOLOGY:
Although legal professionals now make use of technology for some of their works, there should however be more use of technology in the legal profession. Advances in technology such as artificial intelligence allow modern software to scan legal documents, streamline communications and find relevant casework for lawyers. McKinsey estimates that 23% of work done by lawyers can be automated by existing technology. It makes the work easy. Technology is affecting everything and the legal profession is not an exception. The effect of technology on the legal profession is however a positive one and all legal professionals should make sure the use of technology is incorporated into their practice.
LITIGATION PERIOD:
It is no longer news that litigation processes take a very long time and has been very tiring to parties in a suit. The parties have to wait for a very long time before a single case is resolved and this has not been encouraging to litigants. This long process is usually caused by adjournments, orders of courts, etc. it would be very good if this is stopped and cases are solved as quickly as possible.
POLICE RESPECT:
This shouldn’t even be happening in the next 5 years; it should be implemented right now. Over the years, it is common knowledge that lawyers especially female lawyers are brutalised in police stations in the course of performing their duties. This should be considered a major offence against the police and should be treated with utmost alacrity as soon as possible.
CONSTANT COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN LAWYERS AND THEIR CLIENTS:
Most clients are frustrated when their lawyers have refused to tell them about the progress of their cases. This should be a major concern and should be looked into as soon as possible.
ETHICS:
Legal practitioners should be more ethical in their dealings with clients. Some lawyers sometimes put their own interest over the interest of their clients which is against the professional ethics of the profession. Representing clients with undivided loyalty, keeping client’s confidence, representing client within the bounds of the law etc should be the daily and major watchword of all practicing lawyers.
PROFESSIONAL FEES:
There should be a better approach in recovery of professional fees from clients. The laid down process to recovery of professional fees from clients is not effective
JUNIOR LAWYERS RENUMERATION:
This has been discouraging over the years as young lawyers are been paid “peanuts” as salary by senior lawyers who own law firms. Some young lawyers are been paid as low as 15000. This is seen as exploitation to younger lawyers and has been discouraging. Some law firms don’t even pay their lawyers at all and are only been given allowances. The owners of law firms would often say that young lawyers shouldn’t expect to be rich over night as they have to work really hard before they can attain anything. As much as this is true, it does not give rise to an opportunity to underpay the young lawyers. The results of this treatments have been the establishments of small firms by young lawyers as these lawyers would rather work for themselves that been underpaid. There is no provision of HMOs, allowances etc for these lawyers. This should be looked into and can be resolved by stipulating a particular salary range for lawyers.
