Concern 840 · Working draft · editorial review in progress
AI in judicial decisions
AI in judicial work raises risks when generated errors, biased scores or hidden assumptions influence decisions about people's rights, liberty or family life.
Understanding the concern
AI can assist with organizing documents or finding information. It can also invent legal references, omit important facts or produce a risk score whose limits are poorly understood. A courtroom requires reasons grounded in the actual evidence and law, not a plausible answer that cannot be checked.
Judicial guidance in England and Wales warns about accuracy, confidentiality and bias. Think of a judge receiving notes from an assistant who sometimes invents a case: every important point still needs verification. The judge's responsibility remains, and parties need a fair opportunity to address material that influences the decision.
An example
A draft judgment includes a convincing legal citation that does not support the proposition for which it is used.
Illustrative unless identified as a documented case.
Words in plain English
- AI
- Software that learns patterns from examples or uses rules to perform tasks such as recognizing images or generating text. It can make mistakes and does not understand every situation as a person would.
Evidence and its limits
The guidance concerns judicial use of AI, and the research examines legal hallucinations. Neither establishes that judges universally delegate decisions to AI.
Courts and Tribunals Judiciary · Judicial guidance
Artificial Intelligence: Judicial Guidance, October 2025 ↗ (opens in a new tab)Accuracy, confidentiality and bias risks for judicial office holders. Does not authorize replacing judges with AI.
Dahl, Magesh, Suzgun and Ho · 2024 · Research study
Large Legal Fictions: Profiling Legal Hallucinations in Large Language Models ↗ (opens in a new tab)Tests verifiable legal questions and false premises; does not establish error rates for all current legal tools.
Broader frameworks and background
These resources provide context. They do not establish every claim in this concern.
A question to discuss
Can the court explain and verify every important basis for its decision, including any AI-assisted material?
Keep track of different views, what needs checking, and any next step in your own discussion notes.
Open discussion notes →Principles for the conversation
Before you finish · reflect together
Virtues and principles to consider
Virtues are qualities we practice in how we treat people and make choices. They are not scores for judging someone. Use these ideas to explore what a thoughtful response could look like.
Accountability
Accountability means being answerable for decisions and taking responsibility for repair. It requires more than saying that the software made the choice.
Name the person or team responsible, keep useful records, and give them authority to correct problems. Make the route to a complaint clear to the people affected.
Ask together: Who will answer for the outcome and help put things right?
Prudence
Prudence means using careful judgment before and during action. It balances worthwhile opportunities with the need to avoid harm that could have been anticipated.
Start with a limited trial, set stopping points, and prefer choices that can be undone when uncertainty is high. Review what happens rather than assuming the original plan remains sound.
Ask together: What is a careful next step, and when should we stop or change course?
Unity
Unity means working toward shared purposes while making room for real differences. It does not require everyone to have the same experience, beliefs, or opinion.
Look for a goal people can share, then explore disagreements about how to reach it. Make sure quieter or less powerful voices can influence the result.
Ask together: What purpose can we share while respecting our differences?
Editorial ratings
These are editorial judgments from the register, not measured probabilities or predictions about your situation.
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