LAUNCHED: LAWNET AI, E-APOSTILLE
Two new services that benefit both members and the public.
Mr Yeong Zee Kin, Chief Executive of SAL and Mr Leong Der Yao, Assistant Chief Executive, Sectoral Transformation, IMDA signed an MoU to mark the collaboration for e-Apostille
A new LawNet interface awaits: from today, users will be able to enjoy a refreshed research experience when they head to www.lawnet.com. The new LawNet was announced on the second day of TechLaw.Fest and for the first time, houses many of the portal’s services (Legal Research, Academy Library and Corporate References, among others) in one place.
The new LawNet has also made a foray into Generative AI (GenAI), with new AI-powered services in the pipeline. The first of these, case summarisation, will make AI-generated summaries for LawNet’s vast repository of legal content a reality.
Justice Kwek Mean Luck addresses the crowd on the second day of TechLaw.Fest 2024
“We have started to generate case summaries for more than 15,000 Singapore unreported judgments. These summaries will adopt the structure of SLR: catchwords, facts and holdings. We will progressively produce such summaries, for unreported judgments, as well as the tribunal decisions that LawNet provides access to. This will be a major boost to legal research,” explained Justice Kwek Mean Luck, the chair of LawNet Technology Services, the SAL subsidiary that operates LawNet.
LawNet AI includes trust and safety features that flag possible inaccuracies. Case summaries are linked to their original source paragraphs, with any potential inaccuracies or AI hallucinations flagged. A scoring system, similar to search relevancy scores, will be introduced later this year to assist legal researchers. Additionally, users can provide feedback by rating summaries and leaving comments, helping to improve the model.
Mr Kenta Kusano, Chief Technology Officer of SAL and Chief Executive of LawNet Technology Services revealed the new features of LawNet at TechLaw.Fest
Other tech improvements announced at TLF include e-Apostille. From 2025, users will be able to submit documents online for verification by SAL, which will generate and email an e-Apostille attached to the document. Recipients can then verify the documents via the SAL Legalisation Portal. This system offers faster processing and reduces administrative burdens for both businesses and individuals.
In its initial phase, the e-Apostile system will focus on documents issued by ACRA, such as Business Profiles and Business Certificates (Incorporation and Registration). These documents currently make up nearly half of those submitted for legalisation. The new system taps on ACRA’s trustBar verification service, which was launched in 2023, to verify the authenticity of ACRA documents before their legalisation.
“LawNet AI and e-Apostille are just two examples of how collaboration is driving innovative services for lawyers and the public,” said Justice Kwek. He emphasised that SAL could not have achieved this alone, expressing gratitude to key partners like IMDA, the Judiciary, A*STAR, AI Singapore, the Ministry of Digital Development & Information, National University Health System, Smart Nation and Digital Government Office and Synapxe.
“Undertaking this AI development journey has also helped us to better understand the hype and realities of this field and its potential trajectory. We hope that this will in turn, help the SAL to better prepare lawyers for this AI wave, whether through technology services or training programmes.”
LawNet users will receive instructions to migrate their accounts to the new portal. Learn more here.
