NOT wanting to be left behind by rapid technological advancements in the world today, the Supreme Court, one of the country’s most traditional offices, has decided to embrace the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to improve court processes and speed up the delivery of justice.
Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo announced the High Court’s intention to utilize AI to transform the judiciary last year when he said they are looking into using it in court processes such as transcription services to assist court stenographers in doing their backbreaking and time-consuming job.
Gesmundo noted that over the past decade, it has been a challenge for courts nationwide to hire additional stenographers to meet the continuing rise in the number of cases filed nationwide.
He said the lack of stenographers, coupled with “overwhelming” caseloads, has caused delays in the submission of stenographic notes, which in turn delay resolution of cases.
“Access to Justice Info Sites on social media will employ user-friendly language, easy to understand information on court services, and ways to access them such as how and where to post bail, or the amount of filing fees for a given case and how to pay”
“These delays have consequences not only for the dockets of our courts. Ultimately, these delays also impact our people’s faith in the judiciary and their confidence in its ability to effectively and efficiently dispense justice,” Gesmundo told the Court Stenographers Association of the Philippines (CSAP) last year.
“I am sure you have seen in social media the growing popularity of AI tools. There are AI applications generating art and photorealistic images based on prompts that you type in. There are convincingly human-like chatbots like ChatGPT that answers questions and generate writings in whatever style you want for whatever purpose you may have,” he also said.
Gesmundo said AI voice-to-text transcription technology will be piloted in 20 trial courts nationwide, but this will have to be tweaked to learn different languages, dialects and accents used in the country.
“If it is successful, we will roll out AI-powered transcription technology in additional courts, and hopefully, across all our courts,” he said.
Aside from using AI platform in transcription proceedings, Gesmundo said last year it will also be utilized under the SC’s “Access Target Outcome” for self-help services, public assistance, and public access to court-related information.
“Access to Justice Info Sites on social media will employ user-friendly language, easy to understand information on court services, and ways to access them such as how and where to post bail, or the amount of filing fees for a given case and how to pay,” the chief justice said.
“In time, AI-enabled platforms for self-help and public assistance services will also be deployed. The Court will put up kiosks in precincts and courts. The kiosks will assist the public as to court processes and procedures, provide answers to some of their queries, and the like. They may also be utilized in informing the public regarding the status of their cases pending before the trial courts,” he added.
The use of AI is one of the components in the wide-ranging Strategic Plan for Judicial Innovations (SPJI) 2022-2027 that the SC has launched as part of its efforts to reform the justice system.
The plan, which is far from perfect and has been marred by delays due to lack of judges and other resources, aims to create new approaches to solving perennial problems in the judiciary, such as case delays, clogged dockets, and little to no resources.
The SPJI has four guiding principles: Timely and fair justice; transparent and accountable justice; equal and inclusive justice; and technologically adaptive court management.
Court records showed that as of September 2021, of the total 2,692 lower courts created by Congress, 308 were listed as vacant and another 143 were “unorganized,” with 121 judges deemed retired.
Controversies
The use of AI to improve court proceedings is not the first time that the High Court has utilized information technology to manage courtrooms and hasten the delivery of justice.
Former Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno tried with the Enterprise Information Systems Plan or EISP, a project that sought to digitize court processes to speed up litigation. This, however, was marred by controversies, including Sereno’s decision to hire IT consultant Helen Macasaet for P11 million.
Macasaet’s hiring became subject of an internal probe in the SC and was one of the grounds cited in the impeachment complaint against Sereno.
The EISP would have connected all 2,700 courts nationwide, digitized processes, and ensured that no record is lost when court buildings are destroyed or damaged by disasters.
The SC has completed other IT-related projects with similar objectives, such as the Philippine Judiciary Online Learning Platform, Judiciary Enterprises Information and Communications Technology Governance Framework, institutionalization of videoconferencing hearings in courts, Judiciary e-Payment Solution, and the Judiciary e-Library which aims to boost the High Court’s legal research capabilities.
Other SPJI projects are the Philippine Judiciary 365, a program that aims to provide courts with a facility to electronically receive pleadings and submissions in a secure manner and hear and decide cases; the Philippine Judicial Academy Learning Management System, which made available online training programs; and the Bar Applicant Registration Information System and Tech Assistance or BARISTA, the online application platform for those who want to take the Bar exams.
The SC has also upgraded the IT systems of its Human Resource Information and Financial Management Information systems.
Last year, the High Court reported a total case output of 3,711 cases, with a clearance rate of 84 percent and a disposition rate of 21 percent, up from 19 percent in 2022.
