A full guide on classifying and categorising the sea of documents faced by lawyers
ChatGPT is perfect for performing classification tasks, such as assigning a class or category to text.
You provide GPT with a list of categories to choose from (or the model can generate its own categories) and the content you want analysed.
ChatGPT will assign these categories to the text/documents of choice.
Text classification serves various applications, including fraud detection, sentiment analysis, and content monitoring, among others, thereby proving to be advantageous for legal professionals.
Example 1 - Classifying Issues from Scenarios
Let’s imagine we want to craft a prompt that is able to classify different types of Land law issues from brief summaries of the case details.
This is a useful classification problem.
Let's see how we might be able to achieve this with the following prompt template:
Classify the type of property law case based on the summary provided.
Choose from the following categories:
Lease Dispute, Boundary Dispute, Conveyancing Issue,Easement Issue.
Examples:
Summary: The tenant is disputing the landlord's right to increase the rent during the middle of the lease term, claiming that the contract did not stipulate such increases.
Category: Lease Dispute
Summary: Two neighbours are in conflict over the exact line dividing their properties, with one party accusing the other of encroachment.
Category: Boundary Dispute
Summary: There was a significant delay in the transfer of property ownership due to incomplete paperwork, causing financial loss to the buyer.
Category: Conveyancing Issue
Summary: A homeowner is challenging the use of a pathway across their land by a neighbour, who claims they have an established right of way.
Category: Easement Issue
Summary: The tenant has refused to vacate the property at the end of the lease term, despite receiving multiple notices from the landlord.
Category:
You can see that we've used what we learned earlier in this guide to create a prompt that has three different sections:
We start our prompt by including an instruction – classify the type of property law case.
We embed several examples demonstrating the type of case summaries the AI model can expect.
We then use our input, which consists of the case summary and the output delimiter – "Category." Inputting this prompt into ChatGPT correctly returns the result: "Lease Dispute.
Example 2 - Classifying Legal Documents by Type
Legal professionals often need to classify documents into categories such as contracts, legal opinions, case law, statutes, and regulations.
Here’s how you can prompt an AI to perform this classification task:
Classify the following legal document into one of the following categories: Contract, Legal Opinion, Case Law, Statute, Regulation.
Examples:
Document: This document outlines the terms and conditions agreed upon by both parties for the sale of goods including the delivery schedule, payment terms, and warranties.
Category: Contract
Document: The court ruled in favour of the plaintiff, establishing a new precedent for negligence in workplace environments.
Category: Case Law
Document: The Data Protection Act 2018 regulates how personal data of individuals in the UK can be used and stored by organisations.
Category: Statute
Document: The following rules issued by the Financial Conduct Authority set out the responsibilities of financial advisors in ensuring fair treatment of clients.
Category: Regulation
Document: The lawyer provided a detailed analysis of the case, advising that the likelihood of success was high due to the strong evidence supporting the claim.
Category:
Output
Legal Opinion
Example 3 - Categorising Clients Emails by Urgency
Law firms often need to prioritise client communications based on urgency.
Here’s an example of a prompt for classifying emails into categories like Urgent, High Priority, Normal, and Low Priority.
Classify the following client email into one of the following categories: Urgent, High Priority, Normal, Low Priority.
Examples:
Email: I have just been served with a court summons and need legal representation immediately. Please advise on the next steps.
Category: Urgent
Email: I would like to schedule a meeting next week to discuss the upcoming renewal of our contract. Please let me know your availability.
Category: Normal
Email: There is a minor issue with the billing statement I received. Can you please clarify the charges for me?
Category: Low Priority
Email: We have received a cease and desist letter from a competitor and need urgent advice on how to proceed.
Category:
The above prompts can be time-consuming to undertake on repeat basis; we offer a to ensure any documents received by your firm are immediately categorised and placed in the relevant area.
