An attorney's computer program offers to screen potential jurors based on their ethnicity, political views and occupation to find a jury most favorable to a defense lawyer's case. Momus Analytics, the company was founded by attorney Alex Alvarez, trawls potential jurors' social media accounts and uses the findings to predict whether or not they should be chosen. The program includes a racially-biased algorithm that suggests Asian, Central American, and South American people are more likely to be leaders - a quality the program appears to prize. People who described their race as'other' were found to be likely to be leaders. Alvarez, who worked with Texas-based software designer Frogslayer to develop the program, has a pending patent application for the program.

What is the law but a series of algorithms? Sounds a lot like computer programming, right? The legal system, on the other hand, is not as straightforward as coding. Just consider the complicated state of justice today, whether it be problems stemming from backlogged courts, overburdened public defenders, and swathes of defendants disproportionately accused of crimes. So, can artificial intelligence help?

In this special guest feature, Stewart Dunlop, a content manager working with LegalZoom, highlights the fact that artificial intelligence has been predicted to be of value to many different industries, and perhaps one of the most feasible applications will be within legal services. This is due to several factors, which will be explained further in the article, but perhaps the most important is the fact that one of AI's biggest strengths is data collection and analysis. Stewart is a full-time content writer and part-time footballer and reader. Artificial intelligence has been predicted to be of value to many different industries, and perhaps one of the most feasible applications will be within legal services. This is due to several factors, which we will explain further in the article, but perhaps the most important is the fact that one of AI's biggest strengths is data collection and analysis.

What is the law but a series of algorithms? Sounds a lot like computer programming, right? The legal system, on the other hand, is not as straightforward as coding. Just consider the complicated state of justice today, whether it be problems stemming from backlogged courts, overburdened public defenders, and swathes of defendants disproportionately accused of crimes. So, can artificial intelligence help?

Legal AI company Voltaire has launched an application that will allow lawyers and litigation consultants to rapidly analyse potential jurors by crunching public Big Data, including social media posts. The system is of primary use in America and similar legal systems where lawyers for either side in a trial are allowed to research potential jurors before the case commences and selectively apply preemptory strikes, or make a case for a'for-cause' in order to seek a better outcome for their client. Also known as the voir dire phase of trial, jury analysis and selection is an often complex and time-consuming element to much US litigation. Voltaire hopes to use AI, such as machine learning and natural language processing (NLP) to not just greatly speed up the process, but to provide lawyers with new insights via Big Data analysis that would normally be very hard and expensive to attain using manual methods. Colorado-based founder and former IBM staffer, Basit Mustafa, explains to Artificial Lawyer that Voltaire explores all public data related to the potential juror, correlates the data against known patterns in human behaviour and then produces a detailed profile, with indications of the type of person they are and how their views and biases may be a positive or negative factor as part of a jury.