---
title: "British judge discusses AI for cases, but the decision was not given to him"
url: https://media.yoora.tech/en/articles/ai-judge-opinion-not-uk-court-policy
lang: en
published: 2026-10-28T23:08:14+00:00
updated: 2026-10-28T23:08:14+00:00
section: "Hype check"
description: "Jeffrey Vos offers to discuss automatic adjudication of simple civil disputes. Current guidelines limit AI to support tasks."
---

# British judge discusses AI for cases, but the decision was not given to him

In short: In an interview with WIRED, senior British judge Geoffrey Vos says some simple civil disputes could someday be resolved faster and cheaper with AI. He cites small claims for damages as an example. The judge himself uses Microsoft Copilot to find and summarize documents, but, according to him, does not write court decisions with it. Current guidelines in England advise judges to limit AI to administrative tasks. Vos soon leaves office and invites public discussion rather than announcing the reform.

Why the headline "AI will judge people" is premature: the opinion of one judge does not change the judicial procedure. In the interview, Vos directly says that the issue requires the consent of the participants in a particular process or a decision by society through the law. For real application, one would have to decide how to check source documents, correct fictitious case references, explain the result and appeal errors. The article recalls that lawyers have already referred to non-existent precedents invented by the model. This is not proof that all AI assistance is useless; searching and organizing materials can save time. But assistance in preparation and the right to make a binding decision have different costs of error. For now, the correct description of the news is this: an influential judge proposes to discuss the limits of technology, and the current rule leaves the decision to a person.