AI and Witness Evidence Preparation — What Solicitors Should Know

Witness statements are among the most time-consuming documents in contentious practice. Drafting them typically involves taking a lengthy proof of evidence, working through it to identify the relevant points, structuring them coherently, and producing a document that is accurate, admissible, and in the witness's own words.

AI tools are increasingly being used to support this work. This post considers how, and where the limits and risks lie.

What AI can reasonably assist with

Organising a proof. A witness who gives a long, discursive account of events can be difficult to work with. AI tools can help identify themes, create a draft structure, and flag apparent contradictions or gaps — giving the solicitor a clearer starting point.

Drafting support. Once a structure is agreed, AI can assist in producing a working draft. This is not the final statement — it is a starting point that needs to be reviewed carefully against the proof and corrected where the AI has paraphrased inaccurately or introduced content not given by the witness.

Research on applicable rules. Civil Procedure Rules, Practice Directions on witness statements (particularly Practice Direction 57AC in the Business and Property Courts), and the applicable evidential standards can be researched quickly using an AI legal research tool.

Where the serious risks lie

The witness's own words. A witness statement must reflect what the witness actually said and actually remembers — not what AI has reconstructed or inferred. A court that detects AI-generated language in a witness statement has good grounds to question the integrity of the process, and potentially the evidence itself.

Accuracy. AI will sometimes produce plausible-sounding but inaccurate summaries of what a witness said. Every factual assertion in the draft must be checked against the proof.

Privilege. The process of preparing witness evidence is privileged. Using a third-party AI tool may — depending on how it processes and stores inputs — create a risk to that privilege. You need to understand the data handling practices of any tool you use.

Hallucinated authority. If you use an AI tool to research the applicable procedural rules or case law, check every citation. AI tools can produce plausible-looking but nonexistent case references.

Practice Direction 57AC and the business courts

If you are in the Business and Property Courts, Practice Direction 57AC has specific and detailed requirements for witness statements in trials. It restricts witness statements to matters within the witness's personal knowledge and prohibits comment, argument, or opinion.

The drafting discipline this requires — stripping out anything beyond direct factual recollection — is exactly the kind of task where unsupervised AI assistance is most likely to go wrong. AI tools tend toward comprehensive, discursive drafts. PD 57AC requires the opposite.

A sensible approach

AI tools can be useful at the structural and organisational stage of witness evidence work. They should not be the primary drafter of the final statement. The final document should always be the product of the solicitor's judgment, verified against the witness's actual account, and reviewed with the witness before signature.

The statement of truth that appears at the end of a witness statement — "I believe that the facts stated in this witness statement are true" — is signed by the witness, not the AI. The process of producing the statement should justify that signature.

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