As technology continues to reshape the legal industry, the judiciary is no exception. The Sedona Conference Journal article, Navigating AI in the Judiciary: New Guidelines for Judges and Their Chambers, provides guidance on how courts can responsibly integrate AI and GenAI while maintaining judicial integrity.

Authored by a distinguished panel of judges and legal experts, the guidelines set forth a fundamental principle that judicial officers must ensure that “any use of AI strengthens rather than compromises the independence, integrity, and impartiality of the judiciary.” While AI can assist in legal research, drafting, summarizing, and administrative tasks, “judges remain solely responsible for their decisions.”

The panel provides useful guidance regarding how GenAI may be used by a court, including:

• Assisting with legal research
• Proofreading and checking grammar
• Preparing summaries of transcripts, briefs, and exhibits
• Analyzing operational data
• Enhancing court accessibility services, including assisting self-represented litigants.

But the guidelines also warn that the judiciary needs to understand and take care regarding the risks inherent with the use of GenAI tools. Judicial officers are “responsible for any orders, opinions, or other materials which are produced in their name.” Therefore, care should be taken to:

• Validate results 
  All output from a GenAI tool must be vigorously validated to ensure that output is free of hallucinations (which is the tendency for GenAI to generate "plausible-sounding but false or inaccurate information").
• Avoid biases
   Users must be vigilant to avoid “automation bias,” where one overly trusts the output of the GenAI without sufficient critical  evaluation. 
• Protect confidentiality 
  Prompts and information provided to a GenAI tool should not contain confidential, personal, or privileged information unless the user is certain that the tool they are using will treat that information in a confidential manner. Terms of service for any GenAI tool should always be reviewed to evaluate the privacy and security protections prior to use.

As AI continues to evolve, these guidelines can help ensure that technology strengthens, rather than undermines, the integrity of the justice system. Judicial officers and legal professionals must remain vigilant in balancing innovation with the core tenets of justice.

To explore the full guidelines, visit The Sedona Conference.