Having done some work in the legal AI field, I wonder how this classifier deals with issues of transparency, explainability and ultimately trust? It’s valuable to have some idea of how a proceedings might unfold but from my experience most competent lawyers have a high bar when it comes to trusting any AI/ML output.
I was worried about explainability, too. If the classifier just spat out "INNOCENT" or "GUILTY," it would be useless -- the legal reasoning has to be part of the output.
Looking at the paper, the classifier definitely does output its reasoning:
"The legal issue at hand is whether the 50/50 royalty split in the 1961 contract binds only pre-existing affiliates or if it also includes affiliates that come into being after the agreement..."
