"The First Step in Creating an AI Ecosystem within the Court"

Published 29 May.2024 14:35(KST)

Court Administration Office's 'AI Lecture'
Enthusiastic Response from Judges and Staff
Expectations for Trial Efficiency and Work Support

The Court Administration Office (Chief Cheon Dae-yeop) held an artificial intelligence (AI) lecture for the first time ever targeting judges and other court members, and the response and enthusiasm within the court were intense. The event, held as the judiciary is actively embarking on AI model development, has also attracted significant attention from the legal community.

[Image source=Beopryul Newspaper]

The lecture titled "Understanding and Principles of Artificial Intelligence (AI) - AI in the Courts" took place on the 28th at the Cheongsim Hall in the Seocho-dong Court Complex, targeting judges and staff from the Seoul High Court and Seoul Central District Court. A total of 108 people attended in person, including Kim Jeong-jung (58, 26th class), Chief Judge of the Seoul Central District Court, while about 40 others participated online from the Seoul Eastern, Southern, Northern, and Western District Courts, as well as the Seoul Administrative, Family, and Bankruptcy Courts.

Within the court, this was analyzed as the official start of the "Court AI Ecosystem Creation" project. Already, Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae (67, 13th class) stated in his inauguration speech last year, "We will fully prepare so that the court can move toward the future in step with the advancement of science and technology, including the stable establishment of electronic litigation and intelligent judicial service systems." Chief Cheon Dae-yeop (60, 21st class) of the Court Administration Office also emphasized in his January inauguration speech the need to devise AI utilization plans for trials and civil affairs, stressing the research and introduction of creative measures to resolve trial delays.

Judiciary Also Shows 'HOT' Interest in AI

The lecture, hosted by the Judicial Informatization Office (Director Won Ho-shin) of the Court Administration Office, was broadcast via video conference to other courts in Seoul. The lecture was delivered by Officer Lee Nam-seok, who opened the discussion by saying various topics were covered regarding how AI can be used to improve trial efficiency.

Officer Lee said, "The chatbot that guides litigation procedures is nearly completed, and it is planned to guide procedures such as payment orders and allow court staff to look up litigation practices." He added, "However, since the judiciary's AI must not leak internal data to external companies like OpenAI or Microsoft, we are considering ways to operate it preferably within the court's servers." He continued, "We are also contemplating ways to support the intelligence, automation, and efficiency of trial work through building a court AI platform, and plan to interview judges and others around June to gather opinions," adding, "We are considering extracting trial issues through AI in the future."

Officer Lee also mentioned that since legal tech development requires enormous budgets and manpower, the judiciary is also pondering what functions it can perform.

After the lecture, judges and legal clerks in the audience continued to ask questions. They focused on how AI could be used in trial work, asking whether AI could draft preliminary judgments, provide document summarization functions, or enable searching judgments as if querying ChatGPT.

Many judges also expressed the opinion that AI adoption is necessary. According to a survey conducted by the AI Research Association (President Lee Suk-yeon), a court internal community, targeting its member judges on "urgent areas for AI technology adoption in court work," 66% (19 out of 29 respondents) answered that AI technology should be used in trials. Specifically, 19 chose "providing similar judgments," followed by 17 for "search systems," and 16 for "summarizing preparatory documents." Twelve respondents said "drafting judgment drafts" is needed in civil and family law, and 11 said it is needed for criminal judgment drafts (total 128 responses including multiple answers).

Expectations Within the Court 'UP'

Regarding the judiciary's AI development launch, there is high expectation that it will greatly assist work support. It is also interpreted that the judiciary, often seen as conservative, is showing willingness to embrace change in line with the new paradigm of "Legal Technology" by taking an active stance on AI utilization.

A judge from a high court said, "One of the most time-consuming tasks when drafting judgments is reviewing similar precedents. If the search function is enhanced to filter out the most similar precedents to the current case, it would greatly reduce work time and could also be used as a solution to the shortage of judicial researchers (legal clerks)."

A lawyer who is a former chief judge explained, "In civil cases, we look to see if the legal principles are similar; in criminal cases, we check if there are similar cases related to sentencing and what sentences were given in other cases. AI that can find these would be a great help to judges' work."

A chief judge at the Seoul Central District Court said, "While micro-level considerations are important, research is needed from a macro perspective on how to reduce judges' work hours so that the saved time can be devoted to value judgments."

A judge from a metropolitan court also said, "Regarding ongoing cases, it is important to prioritize finding the most suitable precedents for reference. The ideal method would be to execute commands that produce specific results, such as finding recent precedents, full bench rulings, and appropriate precedents for civil cases."