Ever since its arrival blockchain has made a mark and grabbed a lot of attention from the people of different industry and has shown that it has got a great potential to bring the transformation in the industries. Blockchain has several salient features which makes it top on the priority list of the people from different industries. With the help of blockchain technology ledgers can be well maintained and also are transparent to the people thus there are less chances of errors.
Blockchain has brought positive impact to several industries be it banking industry, oil and gas industry, healthcare industry etc. Talking about the legal sector people don’t consider it as one of the high-tech industries as the maximum amount of work in the sector is that of the paperwork and this paperwork has quite been too much hyped even when you check out the movies. However, Blockchain holds the power to reform the sector and update the sector with the current century. To bring this change there has been introduction of Global Legal Blockchain Consortium which promotes blockchain and encourage its adoption in the sector. Blockchain will create huge impact in the legal sector in several ways by-
Introduction of the Smart contracts
Talking about the legal contracts there is still that traditional method used in which contracts are still written down involving the physical signatures on the original documents that are prepared, this process still consumes a lot of time for the accomplishment. With the introduction of the blockchain technology there will be digital method that will be taken into consideration and smart contracts will be created that will include direct involvement of the relevant parties and involvement of the lawyers will be reduced with the help of this.
OpenLaw is there to promote the blockchain so as to reduce the cost, providing more security and to reduce time for the preparation of the legal contracts. There is no involvement of a middleman too.
Solving Intellectual property problems
When it comes to intellectual properties such as images, audios and video files and also several designs and symbols. The law find it very difficult to protect them. The works of artists and musicians are used without informing them although they do try to protect it and they are not even paid the royalties that they deserve from their own work. Hence, to solve such problem companies like NKOR has come up which provide a secured platform so as to register the intellectual properties that are under the supervision of the blockchain technology.
The blockchain law
With time there are changes coming up in the society and according to those changes several new laws are being created and also changes are being made in the former ones. With the introduction of the blockchain it has generated need for new laws and also lawyers who holds a specialisation in blockchain law. Due to this only at the annual meeting of the International legal technology association (ILTACON) blockchain was the main concern of discussion and an entire panel was devoted to its application in the legal sector.
The Property rights
Property rights includes buying the property, selling it and its renting. Talking about this area which is a century behind with tonnes of papers, ledgers etc. Even if a office wants to opt to go digital it will require a full scan of all the paperwork so that they can be organised, which is quite a difficult task especially in India where majority of the cases are due to property disputes. Blockchain holds the solution to these problems as with the help of its security and prominent ledger functions it can store data much more efficiently including the ownership of the land and when the property changes hands it can hold those details too.
The Custody chain
Its important especially in the criminal cases where documents about the evidence is major concern. A paper trail is created for the same which must be well maintained until the time of presentation of the evidence in the court. If the chain of custody is not preserved than it will weaken the case of the prosecution. If its digital file, then it becomes even more challenging. Blockchain not only track the custody of the documents but also store the documents. With the help of the digital ledger permanent record can be stored. Thus there is no need of the testimony too thereby saving time too.
Transactions
Bitcoins are being quite in use and lawyers now need to have awareness about them. Criminals are often using these currencies . Thus lawyers need more familiarity with all these which will be provided by blockchain to them.
Thus blockchain development can bring a revolution in the legal industry too and can evolve traditional methods of the sector.