What are the differences between legal registers and Libryo Streams, and why is one option a more reliable and sophisticated approach to managing legal compliance optimally?

Let’s start by breaking them both down.

What is a legal register?

A legal register is a list of legal instruments whether legislation, regulation or otherwise, which apply uniquely to a given business operation or company. While companies are not required to have a legal register, they do make it easier to see the full spectrum of regulations that apply to a business’s operations.

Legal registers are often stored in Excel spreadsheets or similar static documents, saved on company intranets or buried away in folders. These days, there are also a number of online legal register solutions being marketed. They tend to be a “tick-the-box” solution for management systems, which meet the requirements of international standards like ISO 14001, ISO 45001 and ISO 9001. Legal registers meet a compliance or conformance requirement, but tend to fall short of being genuinely useful.

What is a Libryo Stream?

A Libryo Stream is a specific set of legal requirements that are compiled and updated in near real time, according to a specific set of criteria unique to your business operations or legal interest. Libryo Streams enable you to be on the front foot in knowing relevant law, in understanding what to do to be compliant, and in reporting on compliance.

Whereas legal registers are typically used for domains of law like environment and health and safety, Libryo Streams are used wherever and whenever the law regulates something. Libryo Streams can be compiled for any business operation or whenever the question of “What law applies here?” exists.

Libryo Streams: Context specific law as data

Each Libryo Stream is built upon law as data. This enables context data to be applied to exclude all of your irrelevant legal text, leaving you with only relevant legal text, as well as the information you need to follow it. Whether this is for the sake of managing and reporting on compliance or knowing your legal position, be it rights, obligations or risks.

Here’s what context data includes:

• The number of different operations in which your business is engaged 
• The legal jurisdictions in which you operate 
• The types of business activities undertaken at each operation
• The factors to be considered when answering a specific legal question

Libryo Streams: No disconnections

Derived content, content that’s obtained from other sources can become problematic very quickly. If content is created manually and not linked to law in a database in a sophisticated manner, tracking changes to the law or any new law that is created or repealed can become extremely challenging. The problem is two-fold; firstly, the derived content is now wrong and misleading because it relies on law that has changed, and secondly, there is no automated, efficient and reliable way to update the derived content based on the changes to the law.

The manual legal research wheel (or treadmill) needs to be reinvented. Unfortunately, we have not come across a single online legal register provider that does not suffer the problem of derived content.

Libryo Streams overcome this challenge as they contain sophisticated links between legal data of primary sources and the information that is derived from them that is needed to follow the law. This means Libryo Streams can be delivered efficiently, accurately and perpetually.

Legal registers vs Libryo Streams- a blow by blow comparison table

Libryo Streams are fit for the future

The legal tech industry is growing rapidly, 2019’s investment in legal technology companies has already surpassed 2018’s record of $1 billion and shows no signs of slowing down. Why the sudden increase? Investors, as well as businesses, are coming to realise and embrace the shift in the legal industry, impacted heavily by the advancements in technology.

Maintaining spreadsheets and trawling through legal texts are no longer the quickest and most accurate way to know and meet your legal obligations. Legal technology can offer far greater efficiencies and certainty regarding the law and a company’s compliance status.

All of the functions in the comparison table above is now capable within a single online platform. Most importantly, Libryo Streams can ensure legal, risk and compliance professionals, as well as top management, know and understand all of their legal obligations, whenever and wherever required.

Find out more about Libryo Streams and how they’re created.