If one prediction from the Back to the Future trilogy is on the money, then lawyers have less than a year left in business.

Last Tuesday was a significant landmark for the world’s lawyers.

In Back to the Future Part II, Marty McFly and Doc Brown travel forward to the faraway date of 21 October 2015.

Why is this significant for the legal profession? As Doc explains, in the future the justice system works so swiftly because they have abolished all lawyers – hence McFly Jr’s trial and 15-year sentence all within two hours of his crime.

The time-travel film is not always on the money with predictions – we have yet to see little girls on hoverboards and flying cars on the skyway, for example.

But be warned: the predictions were spot on for CCTV, fingerprint technology and video conferencing. With fees being sliced and funding for legal aid in decline, perhaps lawyers are indeed an endangered species with less than a year to survive? As the Doc would say, great Scott!

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