AI Tools in Courts: A New Frontier for Justice
Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming various sectors of society, including the legal domain. AI tools can assist lawyers and judges in performing various tasks, such as legal research, due diligence, prediction, analytics, and transcription. In this article, we will explore some of the current applications and future possibilities of AI tools in courts, with examples from different countries.
Legal Research
One of the most time-consuming and tedious tasks for lawyers and judges is legal research. Legal research involves finding relevant laws, precedents, and facts from a vast amount of legal documents. AI tools can help automate and augment this process by using natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) techniques.
For example, the Supreme Court of India has launched an AI portal called SUPACE (Supreme Court Portal for Assistance in Courts Efficiency) in April 2021. SUPACE is an AI-enabled assistive tool that can augment the efficiency of the legal researchers and judges to work on cases, extract relevant information, read case files, manage teamwork, and draft case documents.
The AI-powered workflow of SUPACE has four parts: file preview, chatbot, logic gate and notebook. The case files, typically available as PDFs, can be converted into text. The text and voice enabled chatbot helps to give quick overview of the case. The fact extraction system gives information about the case such as overview, chronology, judgement and so on. Finally, an integrated word processor truly makes the tool an end-to-end system.
Another example of an AI tool for legal research is ROSS Intelligence, a US-based company that provides an AI-powered legal research platform. ROSS uses NLP and ML to understand natural language queries and provide relevant answers from millions of legal documents. ROSS can also generate summaries, citations, and insights from the retrieved information.
## Prediction Technology
Another application of AI tools in courts is prediction technology. Prediction technology refers to an AI software that generates results that forecast litigation outcome. Prediction technology can help lawyers and judges to assess the strength of a case, the likelihood of winning or losing, and the expected damages or penalties.
For example, Lex Machina is a US-based company that provides legal analytics for various practice areas such as intellectual property, antitrust, employment, securities, and more. Lex Machina uses data points from past case law, win/loss rates and a judge’s history to provide trends and patterns that can help lawyers and judges to make data-driven decisions.
Another example of prediction technology is Premonition Analytics, a UK-based company that claims to have the world's largest litigation database. Premonition Analytics uses ML to analyze the performance of lawyers and judges across different courts and jurisdictions. Premonition Analytics can provide insights such as which lawyers win the most before which judges, which judges are most likely to grant a motion, and which courts are most favorable for a particular type of case.
Transcription
A third application of AI tools in courts is transcription. Transcription refers to the process of converting speech into text. Transcription is essential for creating records of oral arguments and court proceedings. AI tools can help automate and enhance this process by using speech recognition and NLP techniques.
For example, the Supreme Court of India has proposed to deploy AI tools to transcribe orders and proceedings in May 2021. The use of AI technology will enable the live transcription of proceedings, providing real-time access to the public. The AI tools will also help in translating the transcripts into nine vernacular languages with minimal human intervention.
Another example of an AI tool for transcription is Verbit.ai, an Israel-based company that provides an AI-powered transcription platform for various industries such as legal, education, media, and more. Verbit.ai uses a hybrid approach that combines speech recognition technology with human editors to provide accurate and fast transcripts.
Conclusion
AI tools have the potential to revolutionize the way courts operate and deliver justice. AI tools can assist lawyers and judges in various tasks such as legal research, prediction technology, transcription, and more.
However, there are also some challenges and limitations that need to be addressed before AI tools can be widely adopted in courts. Some of these challenges include ethical issues such as bias, transparency, accountability, privacy; technical issues such as data quality, security; legal issues such as regulation; social issues such as trust; human issues such as skills; organizational issues such as culture.
Therefore, it is important to have a balanced approach that considers both the benefits and risks of using AI tools in courts.
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