England's Top Civil Judge Urges Debate on AI's Role in Deciding Court Cases

Geoffrey Vos, the Master of the Rolls and most senior judge in the civil justice system of England and Wales, retires in a few days. In an interview with WIRED in London, he urged the public and lawmakers to debate whether and how judges should use artificial intelligence (AI), as the technology rapidly changes legal work.

Current practice

The latest guidance advises judges in England to limit AI to administrative tasks. Vos says he uses Microsoft Copilot daily to find old documents and summarize large bodies of text, but not to write judgments. He says he is more cautious about using it to read papers in his own cases.

Recently Vos visited a court in Shenzhen, China, where civil disputes are decided by judges with heavy AI assistance. Impressed by what he saw, he believes courts around the world should consider following.

Where AI could be used

Vos thinks personal injury claims and low-value professional negligence cases could be adjudicated by AI. Complex commercial disputes and sensitive family cases, in his view, will still need a human judge. He stresses that algorithmic decisions can only be accepted if parties consent in a particular case or if society decides through legislation.

Risks and challenges

Several lawyers have been caught citing case law invented by AI, and in the UK someone recently lost their licence to practise partly because of misusing the technology. Vos says the number of county court cases started rises by 10 percent a year, because people use chatbots to draft claims. No data exists on how many are well founded, but he rejects the idea that AI-created claims are automatically frivolous.

On fake images and video, Vos says judges have always had to assess whether people are telling the truth, and he cautions against predicting disaster.