AI is beginning to change the business of law

In spring 2024, two days after undergoing complex cardiac surgery in the Midlands, a man in his mid-70s unexpectedly deteriorated and died.

The hospital referred the death to the coroner’s service, as is protocol when a cause is unknown, and clinical negligence barrister Anthony Searle was instructed by the man’s devastated family to represent them.

To try to get to the bottom of what had happened, Searle knew he would need to ask the surgeons some probing questions. So when the coroner declined his request for an independent expert report, Searle was frustrated.

Instead, he turned to another resource that is proving increasingly useful in the chronically underfunded coroners’ courts: AI.

“Deaths that go to inquests are there because they are a shock. What families want is to increase their understanding as to how their loved one has died,” says Searle. “My use of ChatGPT allowed my questions to be more focused on the technical aspects of the surgery and help fill the gaps left by not having experts to call upon.”

Searle, 35, is at pains to emphasize that he does not put any client data or information into the AI tools he uses, and vets all of the information and citations the bot spits out.

Yet his caution belies his status as an early adopter tentatively putting AI to use at the centuries-old Bar, work that could push the institution at least partially into the modern era.

Potential uses for the technology may eventually include assisting barristers’ clerks, who negotiate fees and arrange their diaries, so they can make better use of advocates’ time. The possibility of AI helping to draft skeleton arguments, the case summaries presented in court, has also been mooted.

In addition to research, Searle is using the technology to create bespoke AI tools, including an app for calculating damages in clinical negligence claims. The app analyzes data from the actuarial tables English courts use to work out a person’s future losses as a result of injury, and calculates more precise estimates taking into account factors such as age and lost pension contributions.