If you are due to appear in a Magistrates’ Court for a driving offence, you may be thinking of representing yourself, managing without a Solicitor and just using AI. Is that a good idea?
AI Is Only as Good as the Input
AI only gives the right answer if you ask the right questions and supply all the relevant information. Even then, the answer it gives may be incomplete, misleading or downright wrong. The errors may not be obvious though. As Sir Geoffrey Vos, the Master of the Rolls, a very senior Judge, recently said: “AI makes very subtle mistakes”.
In our legal system, the law is primarily based on legislation passed by Parliament and caselaw (“precedent”) decided by Judges. Unfortunately, AI sometimes generates “ghost” legislation and caselaw. It looks right, but doesn’t actually exist. A good lawyer will check the reference and spot the mistake, but an unrepresented person probably won’t. Relying on non-existent law can be disastrous.
Court Outcomes Depend on More Than the Law
Another thing to consider is this. In Court, the outcome of many cases depends not so much on what the law says, but on factual, practical and tactical issues which AI just can’t help with. Magistrates, Judges and Prosecutors are human beings. Therefore persuading a Prosecutor to drop the charge against you, or persuading the Court to let you keep your driving licence, relies on human factors which AI cannot (yet) replicate. An experienced and respected Solicitor who knows what to say to the Prosecutor or Magistrates, and how to say it, is very likely to be more persuasive than AI.
Similarly, when the Court ignores your emails, AI won’t know who to ring in the Court office to progress your urgent case that’s been lost in the system.
Why an Experienced Solicitor Matters
I dealt with a case recently where a new client showed me the answer he had been given by AI. It was the right answer, but to the wrong question. Because he’d not included a relevant fact in his question, the answer he received simply didn’t apply to his case and was therefore useless. It was actually worse than useless. Until I advised him, he didn’t realise the missing fact was important.
Whatever AI gives you, there will probably be other factors which apply to your case which AI won’t mention. Only an experienced lawyer will pick them up. AI might tell you 99% of what you need to know. But it may miss something small but critical, that an experienced lawyer would have known instinctively. That something may be the difference between success and failure in your case. Using the right lawyer will often achieve a better outcome, and save you time, money and stress.
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