Code to court: Can you expect a fair trial from AI, GenAI lawyers and judges?
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Five years ago, Estonia’s ministry of justice assigned chief data officer Ott Velsberg to develop an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered “robot judge" to address a backlog of small claims while ensuring that human judges could review and revise the AI judge's decisions. Complex cases in Estonia, though, continue to be tackled by human lawyers and judges.
Chinese courts, meanwhile, are developing an AI system comprising "non-human judges", designed to offer comprehensive support, enhancing legal services and reinforcing justice across "smart courts" by next year. Closer home, former chief justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud, just days before his retirement on 11 November, tested the acumen of an AI “lawyer" at the Supreme Court’s National Judicial Museum by asking it if death penalty is constitutional.
The on-screen AI advocate confirmed, referencing the “rarest of rare" standard for heinous crimes, which left Chandrachud visibly impressed. In June, he advocated a "measured" adoption of AI in India's judicial system. Many countries have already begun using AI, and now generative AI (GenAI), models to reshape legal systems, aid lawmakers, courts, and legal practitioners.
From streamlining processes to predicting case outcomes, AI and legal-specific language models are promising to introduce efficiencies in many judicial systems, while reducing the chronic delays and backlogs of millions of cases that are plaguing courts the world over. Goldman Sachs estimates that 44% of current legal work tasks could be automated by AI. According to the 2024 Legal Trends Report report by Themis Solutions Inc.
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