Singapore Courts rolls out new AI tool to help support, summarise Small Claims Tribunals cases

People with pending cases in the Small Claims Tribunals (SCT) can rely on a new generative artificial intelligence (AI) tool from November, to help them better understand their cases and prepare for them.

The tool, developed by the Singapore Judiciary in collaboration with AI platform Harvey.AI, will aid both people who are filing and responding to SCT claims, as well as Tribunal Magistrates, the Singapore Courts said on Sept 10.

Generative AI refers to deep learning algorithms, such as ChatGPT, that can generate high-quality text, images and other content based on the data they were trained on.

The tool will provide clear and easy-to-read summaries of the case presented by both the claimant and the respondent, helping them understand the facts and evidence relied upon by either side, as well as the legal and factual issues raised.

It aims to help the user better frame his arguments for trial by outlining the main points of each party’s position and evidence, among others.

The launch date for this tool for these users is to be announced later, but Tribunal Magistrates have been able to use it from Sept 10 to generate summaries.

These summaries help the magistrates to prepare for trial more efficiently, given that parties are putting in larger volumes of evidence with the increasing use of WhatsApp messages and e-mails, the SG Courts noted.

“Case details are securely stored, and confidentiality is maintained at every step. Furthermore, the generative AI tool is carefully designed to provide factual summaries without offering case-specific legal advice to a court user,” it added.

As part of a partnership inked in August 2023, Harvey.AI and the Singapore Judiciary had in December 2024 deployed an AI tool to translate court documents to Chinese, Malay or Tamil. This translation service was expanded in March, to include all documents filed by parties.

The partnership between the two parties was renewed and expanded on Sept 8.

Source: The Straits Times © SPH Media Limited. Permission required for reproduction.

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