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by drbwaa 1263 days ago
> That's the lawyer's job, to guide you through ! If they're not doing that, then find a different lawyer.

Yes! And if you happen to know that, and have a good lawyer, then you're all set. But a hell of a lot of lawyers won't volunteer to do this, or aren't competent enough to have this conversation productively with a layperson, and most people don't know to ask for it.

I have my doubts as to the practicality, but a tool that could summarize and then prompt laypeople go to their lawyer to start that discussion seems like it could definitely have value. I suspect most people interested in this tool may already be knowledgeable enough to ask for a walkthrough anyway, but you could imagine implementations where the summary is presented directly, and could guide more people toward the help they need.

1 comments

> competent enough to have this conversation productively with a layperson

HUH ? That is literally their job !

Legal document review is bread and butter for lawyers.

Having productive conversations with laypeople is what lawyers do all day every day.

I really don't get your point.

If a lawyer is unable to have a productive conversation with a layperson about a legal document, then they need to be stripped of their qualifications.

That’s not their job - their job is to make persuasive legal arguments, craft legal language to be ironclad, etc. Similarly a top researchers in CS isn’t employed for their ability to explain CS, despite the fact we employ them to do just that.
There are plenty of lawyers who are not competent at their jobs, but can be convincing to uninformed laypeople.