AI could ‘filter out rubbish’ in pre-trial work
The Courts Service chief executive has told trainee solicitors that a new portal being developed will be “game-changer” for practitioners.
Angela Denning was speaking at the Future of Legal Practice Summit, the Law Society’s annual two-day legal-education event for trainee solicitors in Blackhall Place.
She told trainees (9 January) that a webinar on the portal held before Christmas had attracted interest from 1,100 solicitors.
The courts chief said that the portal would allow solicitors to view all of their cases, old papers, the number of adjournments, and previous orders, while also allowing judges to view these cases.
She explained that a unified system would also bring more transparency and better data, adding that quarterly statistics were already being shared with judges and staff.
Asked about AI, Denning told trainees that the courts body had tested the technology in some areas where it was encountering difficulties.
Denning told the event that a shortage of interpreters was “a huge problem”, and that this was an area that AI could help with in the future, adding that transcription was another area at which the service would look.
'Real challenge’
She also saw a role for AI in filtering out much of the pre-trial work for judges, who were often faced with submissions involving hundreds of cases.
“Now, you can go to the internet and you can land 200 cases into the papers for the judge to read. Realistically, they are not going to read those papers
“I think this is a real challenge for the judiciary, and they're trying to figure out how they can use technology to curtail what people can do,” the courts chief said.
“It’s about how we filter out all the rubbish so that they get the ten cases that are actually relevant to the case, rather than whatever was easily downloadable off the internet.”
Public trust
Denning warned, however, the Courts Service had to be “extra, extra careful” with AI, as public trust could easily be lost if the technology were used in the wrong way.
The courts chief explained why the service had made improvements to its website, mainly focused on providing clearer explanations in areas with high numbers of lay litigants, such as family law, debt, and repossessions.
She said people needed to know not only what problems the courts could fix, but also the implications of taking legal action – particularly in family-law cases.
“There was concern that if we provided too much simple information, people wouldn't use solicitors,” she told the event.
“What we're actually finding, in practice, is that people now understand the scale of the challenge ahead of them, and they are going to make contact with the Legal Aid Board and with FLAC.”
Denning also said that the introduction of more structured forms online would free up staff to deal with people who needed more assistance.
She said 66% of family-law forms for the District Court were being completed fully and correctly online.