2020 LegalTech Startup Challenge, run by Hackquarters for the second year in December, made us think about the potential of digitalization and innovation in deep-rooted areas with high structural complexities.

The term "Legaltech" can be defined as the application of advanced technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, and blockchain to legal processes and matters. This new field has many sample practices such as online dispute resolution, contract revision, contract automation, and etc. LegalTech brings a transformation to traditional legal practices as it compels lawyers not only to master the legal literature but also to absorb the new technology altogether.*

On the other hand, insurance is a definition that determines legal rights and obligations. Insurance contracts oblige insurers to pay or fulfill other liabilities due to events specified in the contract.      

Given the fact that insurance is primarily based on legal contracts, it also goes hand in hand with legal processes. Legal challenges affect contract's duration, validity, damage, and compensation provisions of specified and unspecified events, the rights of the stakeholders in cases of death or disablement, risk management, and compliance measures clearly showing that insurance is very legally regulated.

Due to the length and complexity of the processes, connection between insurance and law can seem a little distant from innovation. Other than some amateurish undertakings, we often do not see AI engineers who offer comprehensive insurance/ law solutions. In order to combine new technologies with these high-potential and complex areas, there is a growing need for focused and expert-led Insur-Legal Tech workshops, similar to LegalTech Startup Challenge powered by Hackquarters.

If we take a look at this issue from an insurance perspective focusing on the unfortunate points in the junction areas between law and insurance value chain, it is some potential value areas are obvious. Important to mention 

• algorithms for reducing the number of files that insurers have submitted to legal disputes, and shortening the processes 
• analysis tools that will analyze the qualifications of the disputes and direct them to the lawyers determined automatically
• robots that optimize the response mechanism by developing models based on the development of outstanding amounts 
• legal correspondence and transaction robots
• legal proceedings 
• solutions that provide both efficiency and cost optimization, such as correspondence and expense tracking systems. 

Of course, it is possible to add business models that create their own income stream by creating monetary value to these solutions.

The best way to reveal the potential finding Insurtech-Legaltech intersections is to check existing Legaltech startups and discover whether they can be also applied in Insurance. 

Legaltech Startups Map, published by Hackquarters, (https://assets.website-files.com/5f74f5d573b64b6628a57350/5ff820157dc1e3334ede98f4_legaltechstartupsmap.png) provides an instructive perspective for Legaltech.

Let’s explore some examples selected among 2020 LegalTech Startup Challenge and presented in  Legaltech Startup Map which can be cross-related with both Legal and Insurance technologies. 

Avalance Global Solutions: India rooted cyber-security solution that provides AI-ML based live content security for a wide range from cinema and music compositions to financial institutions.

https://youtu.be/qSIC_8XdLMU

Efilli: Efilli is a permission management tool that allows companies to collect cookies and other personal data in accordance with the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), CPPA (Consumer Privacy Protection Act), KVKK (Personal Data Protection Authority) and other data regulations.

https://youtu.be/sMc8U38Qs7Q

Lawtechgroup: A German technology company that optimizes litigation costs by predicting the outcome of the legal process with an artificial intelligence-based estimation tool. Health and life insurances are also among the focus areas.

https://youtu.be/Usp5MbJbFjE

Quant Legaltech: is a legal technology company with the sole vision to create innovative, user-friendly legal technology solutions for corporate governance, risk, and compliance.

https://youtu.be/C9R0w3UNNn0

Emahkeme: An Online Dispute Resolution Portal, whose purpose is to facilitate the resolution of legal disputes online in the ordinary course of life, to make it economical, to shorten and speed up the resolution process to be reached.

https://emahkeme.com.tr/

*Source: The Digitalization of Legal Sector Through Startups, January 8, 2021, www.hackquarters.co