A presentation at CTC 2013 addressing possible futures for Bench, Chambers and Bar in 2023

1. Digital Natives
Children of the New Paradigm

2. Judge David Harvey
LLB Auckland
M Jur Waikato
PhD Auckland
A Judge of the District Court
Auckland
New Zealand
Judge David Harvey has been a judge of the district court in New Zealand for 25 years. He also teaches law and information
technology for the Faculty of Law, Auckland University, and has written a text on Internet and computer technology law
titled internet.law.nz, now in its 3rd edition. He is consultant editor to Butterworths Electronic Business and Technology
Law and a member of the editorial board for Butterworths Technology Law Forum. He has written extensively in the field
of law and technology and has presented a number of papers both in New Zealand and internationally on law and
technology matters.
He graduated with an LLB from Auckland University in 1969, MJur from University of Waikato in 1994, and PhD from
Auckland University in 2012. His doctoral dissertation was on the influence of a new technology (the printing press) on law
and legal culture in England in the Early Modern period.
Judge Harvey continues his doctoral interest on the immediate and wider impact of new technologies on the law and legal
culture and is developing his theories on his blog at www.theitcountreyjustice.wordpress.com

3. Mark Prensky

4. Digital Immigrants

5. Digital Natives

7. It’s all about how we process
information

9. Digital Technologies give meaning to
McLuhan’s comment:

10. The medium is
the message

11. The impact of the digital communications
technologies – a convergence of
everything that has gone before - lies in
the way in which it redefines the use of
information and the way we access it,
process it, use it, respond to it and our
expectations of it and its availability.

12. The Properties of Digital
Technologies
• Persistence
• Continuing disruptive
change
• Dynamic information
• Delinearisation of
information
• Dissociative enablement
• Permissionless innovation
• Availability
• Participation
• Searchability
• Retrievability

13. The information expectations of Digital
Natives have been shaped and moulded by
these qualities.

14. Their uses and expectations of what
happens in the on-line world are quite
different to those of their parents
(digital immigrants) or those of my
generation (digital aliens).

15. Thus any solution must be premised upon
an understanding of the technology and
the way that it shapes behaviours and
values underlying those behaviours

16. The solution must also recognise another
McLuhan aphorism

18. The Digital Native Lawyer
A Speculation

19. • Adelaide, Zoe and Olivia are currently law students at Auckland Law School.
• They are Digital Natives.
• They are highly accomplished students
• They also made a video of a Law School Revue item.
• They put it up on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tC1XtnLRLPM
and Vimeo http://vimeo.com/73587193
• It went viral – 2 million hits in 5 days
• They are the lawyers of 2023

20. 2023 - Olivia is a Litigator
• Last time she
appeared in a Court
building was when she
was admitted to the
Bar
• Court buildings aren’t
being built any more
• Court appearances are
all done by video-link –
that’s about to change

21. • Olivia is part of a generation of
barristers that has never litigated in a
courtroom. She doesn't need to waste
time travelling to and from court and
often (sneakily) only dresses up her top
half.
• She wears track pants and slippers.
• Skype is yesterday’s communications
system
• But Holog means she will have to start
dressing up

22. • Olivia works in a
traditional Law Office
which prefers personal
presence to remote
participation or
teleworking.
• She has decided to hand
in her notice and has been
accepted for a litigation
position with a “virtual
practice” that has no
office other than an
administrative centre.
• She prefers the
flexibility of teleworking.
• Olivia’s job interview was
via Holog.

23. Teleworking
• She can attend to “file
work” at times to suit.
• Any time constraints are
imposed by Court
appearances which run
on an appointment basis
or when she wishes to
Holog with a client.

24. Trial without a Courthouse
• No longer will the
participants gather in
one building.
• Holog makes virtual
“presence” the way of
trials and hearings.
• Jurors gather in a
virtual space, log in with
a unique ID assigned to
them at the beginning of
the trial. They will not
gather together. They
will deliberate on-line.
• The lawyers will conduct the
case from their offices. Their
clients will be virtually
present.
• Those in custody will access
the hearing from a suite in
the prison.

25. Evidence in the Trial
• Civil hearings will be
conducted in the same
way. Evidence will be in
digital form.
• If there is a
requirement for a
physical item to be
produced 3D printers
will “re-create” the
object.

26. Evidence is Everywhere
• The “Admissibility of Information Act 2020” has
finally removed the word “evidence” from the legal
lexicon - recognises the nature of digital
information and its qualities.
• CCTV cameras, Google Glasses and similar recording
devices mean that apart from a few blind spots
most of the day to day activities of citizens are
recorded.
• The notoriously unreliable method of the oral
recounting of events by an eye-witness is replaced
by large scale data aggregation of information from
a number of sources that are made available to the
virtual hearing.
• Witnesses will be a conduit for the production of
information or commentary on events that are the
subject of data.

27. Putting it Briefly
• “Evidence will
be provided by
way of a mash-
up of various
real time
collections
obtained via
Google implants”
Rick Shera
@lawgeeknz

29. The Judge 2023
• Chambers are located at home or at a small
office. The facilities – primarily providing
the technology – are provided by the
State.
• Universal fibre and broadband mean that
the old problems of lag and jumpy images
are a thing of the past.
• The Judge has to dress up even less than
Olivia. The gown conceals his T-shirt and
shorts.

30. Law Clerks
• Clerks work collaboratively using Cloud
based utilities and a secure Cloud presence
for the work they do for their Judge.
• Most of them are involved in post-grad
work at on-line Universities as well as
clerking for their Judge.
• Occasionally they will gather via Holog and
at the end of the year they all physically
congregate at a restaurant for a
celebratory dinner.

31. The Ninth Circuit Approach
• It is rumoured that Judge Kozinski still
takes his clerks for a weekend in Las
Vegas.

32. • The “Susskind Model” of
analysing and decomposing
legal work into component
parts means that most
citizens are able to attend to
most simple legal tasks
themselves.
• On-line standardised
documentation that citizens
can complete and file either
from their own information
systems or from a kiosk or
cubicle legal service realises
the dream of the paperless
court.