Visual Law and Jurimetrics. The combination that is changing legal practice. (Part II)

“Design is not just what it looks and feels like. Design is how it works."?

Steve Jobs?

Legal communication featuring empathy and efficiency.

Have you ever noticed how many things are getting easier, some even more friendly? That's right! Take some everyday activities like watching a movie, ordering takeout food, hailing a cab, signing a contract, or opening a bank account. These days, besides the ease with which you can do all of the above by simply using your smartphone from the comfort of your home, you may have also noticed that new online services are again ...nicer to you. After all, delivery apps don't offer discounts with amusing messages informing you of any promotions; streaming platforms "strive" to provide easy-to-access content that suits your preferences; payment methods now "offer" money back through cash-back! Have you given any thought to this??

Yes, the business world is changing, becoming a little more vibrant. We can attribute this effect to several aspects, such as the great success of technology companies that daily break the paradigms of traditional industries by revolutionizing business models and offering products & services that are highly focused on the user experience. They are continuously coming up with new approaches to communicating their goals in a way that is more user-friendly, clearer, and warmer, or to put it in a single word, empathic.?

And why are they actually doing this? Well, basically, because it is good for business, it also seems beneficial to us all. Who doesn't like to be well taken care of, to be offered something with kindness and consideration? Yes, everyone does. At last, they have figured out that we are supposed to treat our customers like allies rather than opposites. No more contracts and relationships based on exceptions, fine printing, and constant antagonism. This shift in attitude is out there and is here to stay. There is no turning back, simply because it is better and more effective.?

Where does that leave the Law? We are part of human science, which is evolving alongside the practices and customs of society and its surroundings. These new practices influence the Law, and the Law, in its turn, influences everyday life. Now would be no different. We are influenced by this new relationship between organizations and clients, this more effective and empathic approach to communication.?

?Law is essentially communication, but clinging on to formalisms rather than form, traditions rather than equality led to creating a hermetical science fit to be understood only by those initiated in the subject of law. The only problem is this is not fair. Those educated in legal training will, naturally, always prove to have a more remarkable ability when dealing with such content, which is true of any science or career. However, unlike other fields of expertise, what we do as law practitioners primarily affect people who do not possess a Bachelor's degree in Law. People that are nevertheless in contact with our Legalese writings. Whether these are contracts, petitions, rulings, reports, memorandums, guidelines, legislation, and just any sort of norm, as a rule,? it is expected of everyone to be familiar with what such documents state; one cannot, after all, avoid abiding by the law, claiming to be oblivious of it.

Reality is very different. Law is supposed to be known by everybody, but it is not for everybody. This is not good and needs to change. The idea of drafting a contract with unfair clauses, which reads more like a war declaration than a resolution between parties, must make way for more straightforward tools.? Tools that simultaneously keep legal security elaborated in a more synthetic and visual form, using a more accessible language and formulating the reader as the core objective. The same logic should apply to all existing legal documents and communications. Rules will remain edited in the traditional format. Still, nothing stops the creation of guidebooks, storyboards, one-pagers, and videos that seek to disseminate the fundamental knowledge, not just the formalistic one, of that rule.

This ongoing change, resulting from a more general and broader context, is already producing its first cases in Brazil. We are talking about Visual Law. But anyway, what is Visual Law? Now that we have managed to draw a parallel with other social movements, we know that accessible communication is not a joke but an earnest commitment to engage in the creation of better-understood documents.? We can define Visual Law as a preparation procedure for legal content, using design concepts, summing up and making content more transparent, thus making it more understandable and generating empathy with the readers.

Visual Law is meant to be effortless, empathic, interdisciplinary, playful, coherent, and efficient. Visual Law does not intend to be hard, oblivious, one-sided, stiff, disconnected, and inefficient. Visual Law applies design principles to Law to develop better communication. The work is about legal content, but the tools used to belong to other domains: design, linguistics, psychology, graphic computing, statistic, etc. That does not mean that you have to become a jurist, designer, linguist, psychologist, computer science expert, and mathematician to start practicing Visual La; rather that you will have to break some of the paradigms to get there.

Do you remember the quote in the introduction to the first part of this article from Alvin Toffler? It is time to unlearn what you have learned to relearn a new way of doing your job. You will not stop being a lawyer, judge, prosecutor, defense attorney, etc. On the contrary, you will be a more skilled and prepared professional for a new professional future. This future is analytical, diverse, inclusive, and interdisciplinary. Being highly specialized in your formation area makes you an expert but not necessarily good at communicating your ideas. This transformation wand is touching all professions. The risk of being left out of leading positions is out there for those who don't notice the movement and cling to formalisms that no longer have room in a connected, fast, intuitive, and hands-on world.

Every journey begins with a good first step. You may already be well underway with your career makeover, or this may be your initial step. As you read this article, you may even be experiencing anxiety, thinking, " Dear God, what's going on? Calm down, take a breath, count to ten, and stay calm. Changes happen fast, but they are not immediate. The most extensive collection of laws in the world is in Brazil. It is an infinite pool of laws, decrees, regulatory instructions, contracts, circular orders, lawsuits, handbooks, etc.

And on the other hand, a large portion of the population has trouble interpreting more complex texts or even has little time to do so. In other words, there is a lot of " room" left for Visual lawyers. After all, there is a lot of work to be done.

What about combining Visual Law with Jurimetrics? Of course, we can understand the groundbreaking potential of joining together:?

A - the ability to turn data into information and make decisions based on leading indicators; and

B - providing solutions, content, and results more compellingly that will set you apart from the average and please your client

Jurimetrics and Visual Law complement one another in many ways. Data needs to be turned into graphics, and these infographics are put together to tell a story. Bingo! We have Visual Law here. However, it is not so trivial to have these two techniques systematized, but it is not hopeless either. This is what Thomson Reuters has achieved, in partnership with Legaltech, Juristec+, when creating Legal One Analytics. Besides being the very first Legal BI in Brazil. The platform has innovated and taken the lead by creating the first one-page templates, one of the leading Visual Law applications. This allows users to create executive reports containing their results in the much-coveted one-page format within seconds.

It's a lot to take in all at once, but I will finish with some tips on where to begin: start by looking for references on the topics, articles, webinars, books, etc. Look at the examples that are already available in the market, learn to work with the most insightful design tools like Canvas, enroll in training courses, and be a proponent of the movement that is changing the face of law. Your career will appreciate it!?

Rui Caminha