A Civil Justice Council working group's final report recommends a practice direction, witness declarations and expert rule changes on AI use in UK civil proceedings.
A working group of the UK's Civil Justice Council (CJC) has released the second of two reports on the use and regulation of artificial intelligence (AI) for preparing court documents in civil proceedings. The final report makes recommendations on litigants-in-person, witness statements and expert evidence, according to Australasian Lawyer and Canadian Lawyer.
The report says the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the Bar Standards Board, the Legal Services Board, other professional regulators and legal representatives should regulate AI use in this context as a starting point. A practice direction issued by the Civil Procedure Rule Committee (CPRC) should guide that regulation. The report says the practice direction should use a functional and risk-based approach, consolidate and clarify the court's current approach to accuracy, verification and responsibility for legal representatives' AI use, offer guidance on existing sanctions for AI misuse, and give guidance on specific contexts such as witness statement preparation and disclosure.
On witness statements, the working group recommended no new rules where a legal representative prepares and signs the statement. A witness of fact providing a statement should declare that they did not prepare it with an AI tool that generated or influenced its substantive content. The report clarified that the declaration would not prevent the use of any particular AI tool.
For expert evidence, the working group recommended amending the Civil Procedure Rules to add a declaration about AI use and revising AI guidance for experts, citing the importance of transparency and a level playing field. On litigants-in-person, it said the CJC should urgently address the approach to AI use, and the CPRC should revise the practice direction as needed in light of the CJC's recommendations.
The working group published its interim report on Feb. 17 and considered consultation responses in developing its recommendations. Chair Sir Colin Birss said in a foreword that the group was greatly assisted by the many responses and that all had been considered carefully.
