Social acceptability of technology

Supporting the responsible use of technology that commands public trust is one of the nine challenges identified in the Reshaping Legal Services strategy. A key element of this is ensuring that technology is used in ways that are ‘socially acceptable’. This means that technology’s use should be broadly acceptable to both legal services consumers and providers, and compatible with wider public interest.

The importance of ‘social acceptability’ of technology was highlighted by Professor Roger Brownsword in a 2019 paper, commissioned by the LSB as part of our technology and innovation project. Social acceptability means that the regulation of new technologies should be broadly acceptable to those closest to the service (consumers/users and service providers) and compatible with general societal interests.  What is seen as ‘socially acceptable’ will change over time, and will likely be influenced by the responsible use and deployment of technology. This means that policy makers and regulators need to regularly consider what is ‘socially acceptable’ at any given point in time.

The aim of this research is to identify the redlines that make the use of lawtech socially unacceptable, understand why and what developers of lawtech, legal services providers and regulators can do to increase public confidence in lawtech. The research also compares public and legal professionals’ perceptions of ‘social acceptability’.

This research, commissioned by the LSB and the Solicitors Regulation Authority involved:

  • 36 members of the public in a three-week, online forum
  • 29 legal professionals in a separate two-week, online forum
  • A sample of 1,020 members of the public in a 15 minute online survey, and
  • A sample of 166 legal professionals in a separate online survey.

Our findings show that public and professional attitudes to technology depends on how familiar people are with the specific technology, how much a human is involved in the process, how sensitive or high-stakes the issue it is being used for and how confident people are in communicating in English and online.

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