Towards Improved Access to Justice: Evaluating AI‑Assisted Evidence Presentation

Can AI make court trials faster and improve access to justice?

Brunel Law School academics Dr Asress Gikay and Dr Eoin Guilfoyle are leading a research project exploring how AI could improve efficiency in court proceedings and strengthen access to justice.

Why AI in Courts Needs Independent Testing

The UK Ministry of Justice AI Action Plan 2025 and the Independent Review of the Criminal Courts (2026) both highlight the need for rigorous, independent testing of AI tools before they’re used in courtrooms. This project addresses one of the practical challenges that key stakeholders across the justice system are increasingly facing by examining whether AI-assisted evidence retrieval and presentation can improve efficiency in court proceedings and reduce delays associated with handling large volumes of evidence in increasingly digitised trials.

AiCES (AI Court Evidence System), developed by BGP Global Services, is designed to speed up evidence retrieval, presentation and real‑time transcription during hearings. Initial testing indicates potential cost and digital presentation reductions of up to 25%. This mock‑trial project will independently assess how efficiently AiCES works in practice.

The project is the first of its kind. Although AI adoption across public services is widely discussed, and many stakeholders see its potential to improve access to justice, there’s still little evidence about how AI might affect the judiciary. As a result, we don’t yet know whether - or to what extent - AI can improve access to justice.

Academic studies have not previously tested a live AI system in a simulated courtroom. This is the first experimental study of its type led by law academics, and its findings could shape future policy, practice and legal frameworks. The methodology we’re using here could also support similar studies in the future.

About the project

This pilot project assesses the impact of AI assisted evidence presentation in court trials. It is supported by £10,000 in seed funding from Brunel University London and co funded by industry partner BGP Global Services. Kinly is also supporting the work by providing the hardware infrastructure for the mock trials.

The UK Ministry of Justice AI Action Plan 2025 and the Independent Review of the Criminal Courts (2026) both highlight the need for rigorous, independent testing of AI tools before they are used in courtrooms. This project responds to that call by examining whether AI assisted evidence retrieval and presentation can make court processes more efficient. To deliver this project, we are working with the Red Lion Chambers as a Collaborating Project Partner.

Through a series of traditional and AI assisted mock trials at Brunel Law School, the project will explore how AI supported presentation of documentary, audio and video evidence affects trial duration, workflow efficiency and courtroom practice. A later phase will look at AI enabled translation and transcription, assessing operational performance as well as the socio ethical and legal implications of using these tools more widely across the judiciary.

AiCES (AI Court Evidence System), developed by BGP Global Services, is designed to speed up evidence retrieval, presentation and real time transcription during hearings. Early testing suggests it could reduce time and digital presentation costs by up to 25%. This mock trial project will independently assess how efficiently AiCES works in practice.

Project team:

Dr Asress Adimi Gikay
Senior Lecturer in AI, Disruptive Innovation and Law (Brunel Law School)
Principal Investigator

Dr Eoin Guilfoyle
Lecturer in Criminal Law and Criminal Justice (Brunel Law School)
Co‑Investigator

Wilf Pickles
Managing Director, BGP Global Services Ltd

The Red Lion Chambers (Project Partner)
Red Lion Chambers | barristers

Eva Baric
Doctoral Researcher (Brunel Law School)
Research Assistant

Davis Onyancha Nyakundi
LLM AI, Law and Technology (Brunel Law School)
Research Assistant

Jemimah Alam
LLB Student (Brunel Law School)
Research Assistant