Ulster University has launched a technology centre with a brief to use emerging technologies such as AI to improve the delivery of legal services.
The Centre for Legal Technology (CLT) was officially launched at the university’s Belfast campus on 18 September, and several initiatives are already underway, including projects to explore the ethical use of AI in judicial decision-making and redefine how mass case management disputes are handled.
The 12-month judicial decisions project, which has received £200,000 of funding, will investigate how AI can be responsibly fused into judicial systems without jeopardising fairness, transparency and judges’ independence.
CLT director John Keers, who is leading the project, said: “The CLT’s work is exploratory, assessing where AI may support judicial processes, for example, through information management or case tracking, without interfering with judicial discretion.
“The systemic risks and hurdles include data quality, algorithmic bias, the explainability of AI outputs, and alignment and control concerns.”
The case management pilot, meanwhile, features the participation of the Labour Relations Agency (LRA) and Northern Ireland-based legaltech start-up TalkTerms.
The LRA is currently handling 250,000 cases following the UK Supreme Court’s Agnew holiday pay underpayment ruling two years ago, which opened the door for thousands of employees, particularly in Northern Ireland, to claim for shortfalls in holiday pay.
“The Agnew holiday pay litigation offers a unique opportunity to test AI-enabled approaches to mass claims management,” said Keers.
“Our focus is on how AI tools can classify, cluster and prioritise large volumes of claims while reducing administrative burdens. The aim is not to replace human decision-making but to demonstrate how technology can provide structure and scalability to unprecedented case volumes.”
Also in play is an initiative to explore how AI can improve the conveyancing process with the help of automation and data-driven tools.
Advisory board member John McMahon, the founding partner of law firm Spencer West Ireland, said: “As each day passes the influence of AI on the sector increases. My hope is that the CLT will help law practitioners embrace the technology for the benefit of their own practices and their clients and that it can help streamline and unburden our court service in facilitating early resolution of disputes in a cost-effective manner.”
There are a small but growing number of university-based centres focused on law and technology. They include the Sussex Centre of Law and Technology, which is currently engaged in a Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office-funded initiative to explore how AI can help reduce legal aid backlogs in Malawi through document automation.
Keers said the CLT was collaborating with many of these universities through academic partnerships, conferences and joint research projects.
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