In the near future, an internal artificial intelligence tool within the state Judiciary will allow New Jersey judges to summarize transcripts in an action of will with prerogative writ, or briefs with numerous arguments.
“Do we rely upon the result? No, we are still judges. But can it make our lives more efficient? Absolutely,” said Acting Administrative Director of the New Jersey Courts Judge Michael J. Blee.
The scenario is just one capability of an in-house generative AI program the Judiciary is slowly rolling out among employees. Representatives from the Judiciary demonstrated the tool during a panel at the Annual Meeting and Convention.
The program, which currently has over 1,000 staff users, functions like a common public AI platform like ChatGPT and is used to identify and summarize documents, create draft letters and other internal documents through a prompt. The Judiciary developed the tool to boost court efficiency, speed up legal processes and improve access to justice, according to Jessica Lewis Kelly, special assistant to the administrative director of the New Jersey Administrative Office of the Courts.
“We’re committed to leveraging the capacity of technology to enable our courts to better serve the public and provide for a better forum for legal practice and court operations,” Kelly said.
While the tool is still evolving, Judge Blee said it will remain internal to protect the wealth of personal information the Judiciary keeps, like social security numbers, criminal backgrounds and family court details.
“You can imagine the sensitive data we have,” Judge Blee. “We want to keep that information private.”