High Court to deploy AI for quicker rulings

By William Ysaguirre (Freelance Writer)

BELIZE CITY, Thurs. July 16, 2026

   The High Courts of Belize will be using an artificial intelligence (AI) tool – Lexis+ Protégé, to deliver speedier judgments. The Belize judiciary and the Belize Bar Association are learning how to use this new digital tool at a training seminar hosted by the Chief Justice, Hon. Louise Esther Blenman, and the Judicial Education Institute (JEI) of the Senior Courts of Belize at the High Court in Belize City on Wednesday and Thursday, July 15-16.

   Founded in 1818 by Henry Butterworth, Lexis has been supporting legal research for over 200 years, and published the first edition of Halsbury’s Laws of England in 1907. The company’s legal references transitioned from print editions to electronic format in 1973, then it launched its online legal reference service in 1997. Over the following 20 years, 1997-2017, Lexis expanded its database and search engines with the acquisition of numerous other online services: Interaction, Virtualfiles, Law360, Mlex & Jordan, LexMachina, Intelligize, RAVEL and Silicon Valley Accelerator. In 2020, the company launched LexisCreate and LexisContext to help attorneys and judges draft legal briefs and judgements, and launched Lexis+ AI in 2023. The latest iteration, Lexis+ Protégé will be launched next month.

   Chief Justice Blenman revealed that she has been using Lexis research tools for over 20 years, and the High Court began to learn how to use the company’s newly developed Artificial Intelligence tool with a training workshop conducted by LexisNexis’ Mark Bissett in April this year. Just as the Apple iPhone evolved from the first model conceived by Steve Jobs in 2007 to the latest iPhone 17, and the Samsung Galaxy SIII flagship model of 2012 has morphed into the Samsung Galaxy S26+ in just 14 years, Lexis+ AI has evolved into the new Lexis+ Protégé, which LexisNexis’ Scott Wiles introduced to local attorneys on Wednesday.

   A survey of 1,867 Lexis+AI users showed that 87 percent agreed that the AI tool had helped them work faster; 23 percent said it had sped up their productivity by 60 percent; and at least 41 percent said it had made their work 50 percent faster.

   Lexis’ online database includes all the laws and judgments that have ever been handed down in the British Commonwealth and other jurisdictions. Users buy a license to use the software, and Lexis tailors its services to each client’s needs, Wiles explained. The price varies with the size and features of the package. Users can have access to over 200 billion documents from more than 100 countries, and the database is being constantly updated to always remain current.

   Attorneys spend 7 – 8 years studying the law, before they may pass the Bar exam for their jurisdiction, and they must read constantly to keep up to date with new rulings being delivered which might affect their work. Judges still need to refer to, and consider all previous judgements, which may require that they refresh their memory by accessing printed or online libraries—work that may take them hours or weeks to do manually, but that the AI can do in a matter of minutes. Wiles demonstrated how a user might type in a prompt to describe what the attorney wishes to create: a legal brief, a judgement or a short summary of an argument, and the AI tool will generate a draft document considering all points, based on every resource in its database. The draft includes links to the original judgement or law referred to, and attorneys still need to read through and verify that all points considered are applicable to their case.

   Wiles cautioned users that the output from Lexis+ AI and Protégé may not always be accurate, and the user should always evaluate the draft for accuracy, before sharing the output with anyone else. AI is still just a machine, and the more accurate and detailed the prompt typed in by the user, the closer the AI draft will approach the user’s desired outcome. There is still no substitute for the human brain, and users need to proofread the draft and verify the sources, to avoid “hallucinations”, where AI may misinterpret a prompt and miss the target, a concern that worries 82 percent of users. AI requires validation to avoid bias. This risk is real, as there have been at least 1,645 documented cases of lawyers and judges using hallucinated cases that were not based on authoritative content, which caused then to suffer sanctions and penalties and resulted in damage to law firms’ reputations and finances.

   Lexis has found that 41 percent of its subscribers use its new AI tool to review documents, 45 percent use it for business development, and 49 percent for internal communications. More than half – 51 percent—use it to draft arguments, briefs and summaries, while 52 percent use it to review contracts, and 66 percent use it as a research tool.