About 99% of Americans would cheer if all the lawyers were to be replaced by computers, and a step in the right direction has been taken in California, where one Michael Cane has set up a legal advice-by-telephone service: for $3 a minute, you get to speak to one of six staff attorneys, who enters your problem into a computer containing a legal database, which comes back with the relevant law and background – and at an average 15 minutes a call, it works out cheaper than a face-to-face consultation, average $100; still we think it will be some time before the judge will say to the defendent, are you represented, and the defendent will whip out a cellular telephone and say I’ve got my attorney right here on the other end of the line.
