tech
Plan for AI legal assistants in England and Wales ‘cannot replace funding and staff’, lawyers say
David Lammy to announce trial of AI assistants in crown courts in effort to cut backlog of cases
TL;DR
- AI legal assistants will be trialled in crown courts in England and Wales to help cut case backlogs.
- Judges will use a new AI tool to identify trial-ready cases and group similar hearings.
- The Law Society warns that AI should not be used to reduce staffing costs and must be thoroughly evaluated.
- Past incidents include AI generating fake case-law citations in legal cases.
- The number of cases awaiting processing in crown courts has reached a record high.
- Some court trials are not scheduled to be heard until 2028 and 2030.