Transformation of professional skills in the context of digitalization of criminal proceedings

Abstract

The author discusses the transformation of legal skills in the field of criminal justice in connection with the development and introduction of digital technologies. This issue is examined in the context of three groups of lawyer skills, such as communication skills, the possibility of using digital technologies in case analysis and position development, as well as the possibilities of document management in the context of digitalization and the use of digital technologies in the preparation of procedural documents. The subject of the research is both the skills themselves and the new opportunities that have appeared with the development of digitalization: remote communication capabilities, web forms for interviewing, chatbots, automated information search engines and artificial intelligence capabilities for case analysis, technical capabilities that help to find and present evidence in court, document designers, thanks to which one can create various forms of documents, submission of procedural documents to the court in the form of an electronic document. The article concludes that the introduction of digital technologies into the activities of both preliminary investigation and court bodies is becoming a natural stage in the development of the entire criminal proceedings and for the first time new digital opportunities are being considered in relation to the skills of a lawyer in criminal proceedings. In the article, in relation to each group of skills, those technical capabilities that can and should be used in practice are indicated, and, accordingly, those professional skills that a lawyer working in the field of criminal proceedings should possess. It is concluded that some of the considered digital technologies have already become firmly established in the practice of lawyers working in criminal cases, some are just being introduced and are being distributed.