The Provision of Legal Services to Consumers Using LawTech Tools: Form "Services" to "Legal Product"

We need legal services, but not always and, in any case, lawyers. There are
other companies on the market, real business structures, which represent a
highly recommended alternative to traditional law firms. These companies,
mostly known by the English term “LegalTech” startups, offer their “products”
to the final consumer. In this sense, they are able to facilitate access to,
for example, writing of documents, the presentation of claims or the possibility
to finding a suitable lawyer for the consumer’s case for free or at a very
low cost. “LawTech” tools are especially suitable for small claims that, otherwise,
and despite the European process established for that purpose, would
not be suited. On the other hand, the provision of a “legal product” entails the
provision of a “digital service or digital content”, so the issue should be linked
to the recent and controversial Directive (EU) 2019/770, of Parliament European
and of the Council of May 20, 2019 regarding certain aspects of the contracts
for the provision of digital content and services. To distinguish between
the provision of the legal service and the provision of the digital service or
digital content is not always an easy task and, nevertheless, it is meaningful
because it will affect the determination of the applicable norms; for example,
regarding the lack of conformity or the mistakes or biases of the algorithm.
Likewise, the explainability of the algorithm is a first-order issue in consumer’s
protection, in relation to the pre-contractual information that should be
supplied to them.