Legal Design and Visual Law: the innovation of the judiciary!
Have you ever heard about Visual Law and how this concept focused on Legal Design has revolutionized judicial documents? A digital transformation It arrived in all sectors — you already know that — and in law it would be no different. We already talked about this in the post: Law and Technology — Changes and Trends.
If you want to be a lawyer of the future, you have to start thinking and innovating today. And with that in mind, Clicksign uncomplicates this concept for you so that, in your legal practice, it can be applied in favor of your client and society. Come with us!
Understanding Legal Design
Even before we explain what Visual Law is and how it can be applied to a law firm, it is necessary to address the conceptualization of legal design. Legal design is nothing more than application of design tools, principles, and elements in the design of a legal product or service. The specific purpose of this action is precisely to improve the aforementioned user experience — Hold That Thought, we will already explain to you who he is! If in design, objects and products are created and transformed to suit the function for which they are intended and to act in solving problems, in Legal Design, legal documents must follow the technical criteria pre-established by the judiciary for their production, but with a Plus: to take advantage of aesthetic adjustments to innovate and make yourself understood. In short, Legal Design is a very well conceived union between design (to create understandable and usable documents), The technology (to increase the effectiveness of this production) And the law (to promote social, individual and collective justice by guaranteeing rights and duties). It should be noted that there are several types of Legal Design, but today we want to highlight Visual Law.
What is Visual Law?
It is a bifurcation of Legal Design focused on content production by the lawyer. Through Visual Law, it is expected that projects prepared by legal professionals, such as petitions, petitions, opinions, reports, etc., will be made in a more simplified and accessible way according to each recipient. The basic points of Legal Design are applied here, in the sense of:
- focus on reducing texts in documents so that they are more objective;
- avoid the use of “legal” and other words that are difficult to understand, without departing from the cultured norm;
- avoid textual or visual pollution;
- use iconography, legible fonts and interesting colors;
- always think about the hierarchy of information and how it must be received to be understood;
- use visual aids with purpose, and not just to make the document attractive.
Thus, for the purposes of adequate communication and improvement of the user experience to be achieved through these strategies, it is necessary to invest in the use of accessible language, direct and concise texts, and visual techniques through infographics, videos, images, timelines, and even QR codes.But be careful! The ideal is repeated that all of this should be used prudently, after all, the purpose of Visual Law It's not embellish the legal document.
Objectives of Visual Law
You see, today we use the name Visual Law, but on other occasions the law has used other tools - such as legal digital marketing - to facilitate access to justice.However, it is worth highlighting the adoption of Visual Law by legal professionals and the Judiciary to:
- democratize access to justice, through the simplification of content;
- give Speed of the procedural process, for the production of clear and concise legal documents;
- Reduce the overcrowding of the Courts of Appeal because of the unnecessary reform of decisions due to obscurity, doubt, confusion, or textual contradiction - either because the lawyer's request is clearer, or because the magistrate's decision is easily filtered;
- de-judicialize conflict resolution through friendly negotiations.
In addition, this is an area that makes massive use of technological innovations such as digital signature, the digital certificate and the frequent use of APIs, and those who imagine that it is possible to live in the past just because this is a traditional profession are mistaken.
Visual Law user experience: who is it, anyway?
The user of the judiciary can be you as an individual or legal entity, as well as the first-degree magistrate, the second-degree board, the ministers of the Courts, and even the general population. Of course, for each case there is a final recipient of the legal document, and most likely he will be one of the occupants of the judiciary seats - the judge -, but adapting legal communication can be efficient for all the other actors mentioned. The activities of legal professionals are focused on several fronts: from social and collective protection to the defense of individual rights and duties. And it cannot be denied: both are - and must be - technical, after all, legal knowledge makes the difference. But among us, long gone are the days when only judicialization was believed to be a solution. In short, It is possible to say that the user experience in Visual Law depends on each case, but it is possible to say that it can be addressed to the judiciary itself and its actors, as well as clients of law firms and society in general. After all, who doesn't like to understand their rights, right? The promotion of access to justice begins long before anyone directly needs the active action of the judiciary, and Visual Law appeared at Stanford precisely to guarantee, wherever it may be, the effectiveness in the delivery of legal information. Visual Law can start in a contract or in a report, and even in the STF it can be very well received. Bet! If you want to digitize your processes, as the main companies in the market do, in an applicable and legally valid manner, don't waste time and discover our Plans and Pricing.
