AI - does it facilitate or prevent justice?

By Amelia and Rida

Access to justice is the universal ability of individuals to resolve their legal disputes fairly and effectively. The aim is for legal rights (applicable to everyone, regardless of their background or circumstances) to be practically enforced and defended. This is fundamental to a democratic society; justice should be available to everyone.[1]

The access to justice in the world that we live in is not sufficient. The inaccessibility of justice is a problem that affects many. An estimated 5 billion people have unmet justice needs globally, including people who cannot obtain justice for everyday problems, people who are excluded from the opportunity the law provides, and people who live in extreme conditions of injustice.[2]

Recently, the access to, and the use of AI have increased tremendously. AI platforms are used by many for research, education, work, planning, budgeting, organising and various other purposes. Today, over 65% of people use AI on a regular basis.[3] 

AI can help people understand the law. In its nature, the language of the law is very complex. In addition, the length of statutes and precedents can be very overwhelming to individuals without a legal background. AI can explain and summarise the rights, policies and rules set out by the law. Moreover, it can answer further questions in various areas of the law. These uses of AI platforms can range from summarising parking regulations to avoid a ticket, to using AI to explain tax laws.

Furthermore, many legal firms now use and heavily invest in AI, viewing it as a powerful tool in optimising business efficiency. Around 78% of companies globally now use AI in at least one business function.[4] 

However, AI can make serious errors and even fabricate the law. This can be misleading, especially to an individual without legal expertise. In severe cases, this could even prevent justice from being served or limit the individual’s access to justice, which negates their original aim of using AI to increase their access to justice. For example, a lawyer for MyPillow had submitted a brief with nearly 30 fake citations in it.[5]

To conclude, AI can be an extremely helpful tool in accessing justice. However, especially due to its novelty, it should be used with great caution, and those who do use it should be aware of the high risk of AI mistakes and errors.

[1] Team, L., 31, P.A. (2025) What is access to justice and why does it matter?, LegalClarity. Available at: https://legalclarity.org/what-is-access-to-justice-and-why-does-it-matter/ (Accessed: 24 November 2025).

[2] Measuring the justice gap (2019) World Justice Project. Available at: https://worldjusticeproject.org/our-work/research-and-data/measuring-justice-gap (Accessed: 24 November 2025).

[3] Cardillo, A. (2025) How many people use ai? (latest 2025 data), Exploding Topics. Available at: https://explodingtopics.com/blog/ai-usage-statistics (Accessed: 24 November 2025).

[4] Shewale, R. and Naik, S. (2025) Ai Statistics (2025) total users, funding, usage, and more, Resourcera. Available at: https://resourcera.com/data/artificial-intelligence/ai-statistics/ (Accessed: 24 November 2025).

[5] Writer, A.D. (2025) Ai gone wrong: Ai Hallucinations & Errors [2025 - updated monthly], Tech.co. Available at: https://tech.co/news/list-ai-failures-mistakes-errors (Accessed: 24 November 2025).