I, David Barniville, President of the High Court, hereby issue the following Practice Direction in accordance with the general authority of the President of the High Court, the inherent powers of the High Court to regulate its own procedures and s. 11(12) and (13) of the Civil Law and Criminal Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2020.
Purpose of this Practice Direction
1. This Practice Direction provides guidance on the Court’s expectations concerning the appropriate and responsible use of Generative Artificial Intelligence Tools (“GenAI Tools”) in connection with legal proceedings and the implications of such for practice and procedure in the High Court. It highlights the risks associated with the use of GenAI Tools, including the risk of inaccuracy, and addresses the duties and obligations of parties and their legal representatives when such tools are used.
2. For the purposes of this Practice Direction, Generative Artificial Intelligence (“GenAI”) means AI technology or software capable of generating new content, including text, images, audio, video, data or computer code, typically in response to user prompts or instructions.
Scope of this Practice Direction
3. This Practice Direction applies to:
- all documents used in civil proceedings, including pleadings, submissions, affidavits, witness statements and expert reports (collectively, “Court Documents”);
- all persons involved in proceedings before the Court, including parties, legal practitioners, witnesses, experts and any third party required by the Court to produce documents;
- all proceedings before the Court whether instituted before or after its commencement; and
- all Court Documents prepared, produced or generated after the date of commencement.
4. In this Practice Direction, references to the “Court” mean the High Court.
Date of commencement
5. This Practice Direction will come into operation on 1 September 2026 and shall be read together with existing Practice Directions. Paragraphs 3(c) and (d) above should be noted.
General approach
6. The Court recognises that GenAI Tools may assist in the efficient conduct of litigation, including by reducing costs and enhancing access to justice.
7. Any use of GenAI Tools must be appropriate and undertaken responsibly and with due care so as not to adversely affect the integrity of court processes and the proper administration of justice.
8. The use of GenAI Tools does not diminish or alter any obligation owed to the Court by parties, legal practitioners, witnesses, experts or any other person involved in proceedings.
9. All court users are responsible for the content of their Court Documents notwithstanding the use of any GenAI Tool.
Risks associated with GenAI Tools
10. Known risks and limitations associated with GenAI Tools (as of the date of this Practice Direction) include:
- Inaccuracy: GenAI Tools may produce responses and material that appear plausible but are false or misleading and the output may also be affected by the terms of prompts. They may generate fabricated, manipulated or “deep fake” material, fictitious cases, legislative provisions, academic references or other authorities (known as “hallucinations”). GenAI Tools may also generate incorrect legal propositions or inaccurately summarise genuine sources.
- Bias and incompleteness: Outputs may reflect inaccuracies, omissions or biases arising from the completeness or reliability of the data on which the tool has been trained or the manner in which the data is processed.
- Factual errors: Outputs may contain factual errors and may incorrectly assert, when asked, that information is accurate when it is not.
- Confidentiality and privacy risks: Information entered into a GenAI Tool may be retained, processed or disclosed to other people in ways that are not apparent to the user, even if that is not intended. Entering information into a confidential GenAI Tool may breach obligations if outputs from the tool are later used by other persons and/or for different purposes.
- Legal privilege: Information entered into GenAI Tools or systems (including search results) may be required to be disclosed in legal proceedings. Privileged information entered into non-private GenAI Tools or systems may lose its privileged status.
Responsibilities and expectations
11. The Court must be able to rely on the integrity and accuracy of all Court Documents.
12. Any person responsible for a Court Document, including a party, legal practitioner, deponent, witness, expert or any other person, must ensure that any material generated wholly or partly with the assistance of a GenAI Tool has been appropriately and independently verified before it is used in proceedings. Any limitation on the ability to do so must be disclosed to the Court.
13. It is not sufficient to use the same or other GenAI Tools to confirm that information is accurate. However, persons responsible for a Court Document may verify GenAI content by referring to original source material housed within a GenAI Tool. Detailed guidance on what the verification process should entail has been included at paragraphs 18 and 19.
14. Any person who uses GenAI Tools in civil proceedings should have a reasonable understanding of the limitations and risks of using such GenAI Tools. Users of GenAI Tools remain personally responsible for the accuracy of their Court Documents.
Professional obligations of legal practitioners
15. Legal practitioners remain subject to all applicable professional and ethical obligations under their professional rules or codes of conduct, including obligations to act competently, diligently and independently, and to ensure that the Court is not misled. The use of GenAI Tools to assist in the completion of legal tasks does not diminish or alter those obligations, including practitioners' duties to the Court in the conduct of litigation.
16. Irrespective of the tools used, legal practitioners must exercise oversight and verify the accuracy and suitability of information provided by any GenAI system.
17. Legal practitioners are also required to ensure that their clients are informed of and understand their duty to the Court, and that persons swearing affidavits or making witness statements understand their personal responsibility to confirm the truth and completeness of any such document and not to mislead the Court.
Verification requirement
18. Content produced using GenAI must be verified under human control and supervision. Court users are responsible for ensuring that content produced by GenAI is current, complete, accurate and relevant. If GenAI has been used to produce material to be submitted to the Court, court users should:
- fact-check and proofread;
- edit and adapt the content to meet the particular circumstances of the case; and
- verify that any references to case law, legislation, textbooks or articles exist and stand for the legal propositions attributed to them. Extracts or quotes must be verified as accurate and correctly attributed to the original source.
19. Particular care must be taken to ensure that all exhibits, images, recordings and other evidential materials are authentic and as represented. Fabricated, manipulated or “deep fake” material must never be used or presented to the Court.
20. Failure to comply strictly with these requirements may mislead the Court and other parties, cause delay and wasted costs, adversely affect the integrity of the proceedings and undermine public confidence in the administration of justice.
21. Without prejudice to the particular requirements in relation to certain Court Documents set out in paragraphs 25 to 28 (regarding affidavits and witness statements) and paragraphs 29 to 31 (regarding expert reports), a party or other person must – where directed by the Court – disclose whether GenAI Tools were used in connection with the preparation of any Court Document and, if so, the nature and extent of that use. All persons are expected to be in a position to so inform the Court if requested to do so.
Use of GenAI in particular categories of Court Document
22. Subject to the particular requirements in relation to certain Court Documents set out below, any applicable Rule of Court or an order of the Court providing otherwise, the use of GenAI Tools in the preparation of a Court Document does not of itself require disclosure.
Pleadings
23. Parties and their legal representative(s) (if any) responsible for pleadings must ensure that:
- all pleaded facts have been verified and checked for accuracy;
- any claim for relief is based on proper legal principles;
- any legal authorities relied upon have been verified to exist and support the proposition for which they are cited; and
- chronologies have been checked for accuracy.
Submissions
24. Parties and their legal representative(s) (if any) using GenAI Tools to prepare submissions must independently verify all legal authorities, citations, quotations and references relied upon in Court Documents using authoritative sources.
Affidavits and witness statements
25. Particular caution must be exercised if GenAI Tools are used to assist in the preparation of affidavits, witness statements or other documents which form the evidence or potential evidence of a witness.
26. A witness statement or affidavit intended to stand as evidence in proceedings must reflect the witness's own recollection, knowledge and evidence.
27. Unless the Court otherwise directs, the person making any such witness statement or swearing any such affidavit shall include a declaration in one of the opening paragraphs of the document in the following form (amended or adapted as appropriate):
“I declare that Generative Artificial Intelligence has not been used for the purposes of generating the substantive content of this [witness statement/affidavit] (including by way or altering, embellishing, strengthening, diluting or rephrasing the evidence set out) and that this [witness statement/affidavit] reflects my personal knowledge, recollection and evidence.”
28. For the avoidance of doubt, the use of GenAI Tools for administrative or ancillary purposes unconnected to the generation of substantive content (such as formatting, spell-checking or similar functions) shall not prevent the declaration referred to in paragraph 27 being made.
Expert Reports
29. An expert report must reflect the expert's own opinion, expertise and reasoning process and shall contain a declaration at the start of the report in the following terms (amended as appropriate):
“I declare that, save as otherwise expressly stated, Generative Artificial Intelligence has not been used for the purposes of generating the substantive content of this report which reflects my own opinions, knowledge and evidence."
30. Where GenAI Tools have been used in the preparation of an expert report, the expert must disclose the nature and extent of that use to the extent necessary to enable the Court and the parties properly to assess the reliability, independence and evidential weight of the opinion expressed.
31. The disclosure required by paragraph 30 shall include any material use of GenAI Tools in drafting, analysing, interpreting or generating substantive content for the report.
Court ordered restrictions on disclosure
32. Where information or documents (including documents obtained on discovery) are subject to an order of the Court or to an express or implied undertaking restricting their use, disclosure or dissemination, GenAI Tools should not be employed in respect of such information or documents if the use of those tools would involve, or create a risk of, disclosure or dissemination contrary to that order or undertaking.
Appropriate response to the identification of potential GenAI issues
33. If a party identifies a potential issue with Court Documents prepared, produced or generated by another party (whether or not potentially due to the use of GenAI Tools), they should draw the matter to the other party’s attention and, in the absence of an appropriate response within a reasonable period, they should draw the matter to the attention of the Court.
34. If a party or its legal representative(s) (if any) identify, or are informed of, an issue with the accuracy of their Court Documents (whether or not due to the use of GenAI Tools), they should notify the other party or parties and the Court without delay, explaining the issue and substituting clean and marked up versions of the document(s), and bear the costs of the exercise unless the Court orders otherwise.
Consequences of non-compliance
35. Parties who fail to comply with this Practice Direction may be subject to sanctions including (but not limited to) adverse cost orders, orders disregarding or rejecting Court Documents in whole or in part, or the striking out of their claim or defence (where appropriate).
36. Legal practitioners who fail to comply with this Practice Direction (for example, by citing non-existent sources or inaccurately referencing genuine sources or failing to promptly remedy any issue, where necessary) may be the subject of a referral to the Legal Services Regulatory Authority under the Legal Services Regulation Act 2015 (as amended) or their professional body and/or costs orders may be made against them personally.
37. The Court may take into account any misuse of GenAI Tools when exercising case management powers or determining costs in accordance with law.
Litigants in person
38. For the avoidance of doubt, this Practice Direction also applies to litigants in person.
39. Litigants in person must familiarise themselves with the Guidance for Non-Lawyers on the Responsible Use of Generative AI in Court Proceedings, which is available on the Courts Service website here.
40. Litigants in person, therefore, are subject to the same obligations of accuracy and candour as represented parties. Litigants in person owe a duty to the Court to ensure the accuracy of all references to legislation, cases or other sources referred to in their Court Documents, and in any oral submissions or evidence adduced by them or on their behalf. If they use GenAI Tools, they should verify the outputs using reliable and authoritative sources, such as (but not limited to) the Courts Service, the Law Reform Commission or other reputable official websites.
41. Any litigant in person whose Court Documents contain inaccurate references or references to non-existent sources generated by the use of GenAI Tools may be the subject of sanctions in accordance with paragraphs 35 – 37 (as appropriate).
Review
42. Due to the rapidly developing nature of the technology relevant to GenAI Tools and GenAI in general, the Court’s approach to the responsible use of GenAI in court proceedings and this Practice Direction will be kept under regular review and may be amended or adapted from time to time.
Mr Justice David Barniville
President of the High Court
29 July 2026
