As seven judges were sworn in at King’s House on Monday, Court of Appeal President Justice Marva McDonald-Bishop announced that one of the country’s senior jurists, Justice Kissock Laing, will be leading exploration of the legitimacy and ethical concerns around introducing artificial intelligence (AI) in the court system.

“Given the thrust of the chief justice’s focus regarding the use of artificial intelligence in the adjudication process in the judiciary and his recent public utterances regarding AI usage in the Court of Appeal, Justice Laing will be assigned to lead the charge in investigating not only the efficacy of AI in the adjudicative process but more importantly the ethical considerations and possible ethical dilemmas that could arise from the use of AI by appellate judges,” she explained.

During her remarks at the swearing-in ceremony of judges for the Michaelmas term, McDonald-Bishop highlighted that this is an important step for the judiciary as they seek to find ways to be more efficient and further address the backlog affecting the court.

“There are inherent dangers or pitfalls regarding the use of AI by judges about which we must be sensitised and guided by experts in the field. It is expected that Justice Laing and his team, which will be announced this week at our retreat, among other things, will seek to engage experts who we can consult to chart the way forward safely,” she said.

The announcement comes after Chief Justice Bryan Sykes recently expressed support for AI being used in the courts to boost efficiency through digital transformation.

During his address on Monday, Sykes did not specifically address the implementation of AI but stressed the importance of boosting efficiency within the courts.

“What the evidence really shows is that unnecessary delay is the real problem regarding the quality of justice, so timeliness is important for all concerned. It has an impact on the criminal cases of the defendants. When they are on bail subject to very restrictive bail conditions they can’t keep steady employment [and] they can’t take advantage of opportunities when they arise… it’s the same thing for witnesses when their lives are tied up with this case for years and years and it’s the same thing for judges as well, so efficiency benefits all,” he explained.

In the meantime, McDonald-Bishop said the Court of Appeal will continue its commitment to reducing backlogs as it enters the Michaelmas term.

“The Court of Appeal, under my stewardship and with the contribution of the court’s high-performing team of whom I am proud, will continue to stand on the shoulders of our predecessors as we embark on a mission to make the court one of the best appellate courts in the world. Our immediate preoccupation is to work assiduously during the term to reduce the backlog of reserved judgments so more time can be freed up to be allocated to the hearing of cases,” McDonald-Bishop stated.

She said that after there has been a significant reduction in reserved judgments, she intends to increase the court sittings to four specialised divisions during a given term which, she explained, will guarantee faster case disposal and significant reduction of backlogs.

However, she noted that she is still awaiting the availability of the courtrooms that are now temporarily occupied by the Court Administration Division.

“We eagerly await the availability of those courtrooms [and] I hope to expand the courts sittings to those courtrooms by the Hilary [spring] term. An audit of the inventory of cases as well as a gap audit of the court processes are now being undertaken to assist us in our plans towards extending. In this way and by these means the Court of Appeal should well be on its way in short order to achieving service excellence to which the chief justice and wider judiciary are deeply committed,” she said.

Sykes, who was in agreement with McDonald-Bishop’s vision for the Court of Appeal, noted that there has already been a significant improvement in the appellate court’s clearance rate.

“It is reflected in the data that the clearance rate of the court is at 117 per cent, which really means that the Court of Appeal president’s wish of eliminating and reducing the backlog is actually under way and will be met in a few short years, I would say no longer than the next three years or so, and so the things that she has outlined regarding how the court intends to organise itself will go a far way in achieving those objectives,” said Sykes.

He explained that based on statistical analysis the court’s clearance rate should always be over 100 per cent to avoid backlog and maintain efficiency.

As it relates to the Supreme Court, Sykes explained that rearranging the court’s operations has been one approach in reducing backlog, noting the civil side of the court has been one of the main contributors to the delays.

“As far as the Supreme Court is concerned, the judges who are working there — that is the two judges who were sworn in this morning and who have been sworn in before — they have been very instrumental in reducing the backlog in the court, particularly on the civil side of the court, and what we have endeavoured to do is to rearrange the working of the courts so that there is a concentration of judges on that aspect of the courts operations, because that is where there has been significant delays where cases are filed that are taking five to seven years for cases to come to trial,” he further explained.

Seven judges were sworn in on Monday for the duration of the Michaelmas term scheduled to end in December. Justices Laing and Georgiana Fraser were appointed as acting judges of appeal for the term; Maxine Jackson was given the role of puisne judge; while Opal Smith, Tracey Ann Johnson, and Andrea Martin-Swaby were appointed acting puisne judges. Christine McNeil was given the role of acting master-in-chambers for the term.