Law360, London (April 21, 2026, 4:09 PM BST) -- The professional body for barristers in England and Wales said Tuesday it supports new rules which would require litigators to declare that they have not used artificial intelligence tools to prepare some witness statements.

The Bar Council said that it agreed with proposals put forward in a consultation by the AI working group of the Civil Justice Council that lawyers must make the declarations on witness statements for trial.

The professional body said in an open response to the consultation that it supports the measure because the use of generative AI for drafting was at odds with the purpose of a trial witness statement. This is because AI tools suggest what should be written.

"It would be inconsistent with the requirement that a witness statement be in a witness' own words and that the witness not be asked leading questions, for a witness to be permitted to use generative/agentic AI tools in its preparation," the Bar Council said.

The CJC published a consultation paper in February in which it proposed the new rules to deal with problems posed by the technology, including the citation of fictional, "hallucinated" case law and AI-generated forged evidence.

The working group asked for responses on its proposal to require litigators to include declarations that AI has not been used to prepare witness statements for trial. The group is chaired by Judge Colin Birss, the chancellor of the High Court.

The paper highlighted several risks posed by AI tools, including their tendency to adopt errors and biases in the data used to train them. It also noted the technology's tendency toward hallucinations, as well as its ability to manipulate data and create believable fake images and videos that could be used to forge evidence.

The High Court referred a barrister and a solicitor to their professional regulators in 2025 for citing cases that do not exist.

Master of the Rolls Geoffrey Vos said during an event at the Central Criminal Court in February that courts "need to be ready" for a surge in claims as a result of litigants-in-person and businesses that increasingly use AI tools that can provide legal assistance for free.

The working group is not proposing any measures to control the use of AI for administrative tasks such as spell-checking or transcription. But it has requested views on rules about the use of AI to generate the substance of documents submitted to the court.

The CJC did not propose the introduction of AI-linked declarations for statements of case or skeleton arguments. This is because lawyers already have a duty to act with honesty and integrity in their dealings with the court, which acts as a guard against problematic use of AI in court documents, according to the advisory body on civil justice and civil procedure in England and Wales.

The Bar Council agreed that no declaration was required for skeleton arguments and statements of case. It said that its "existing regulatory framework therefore provides a clear and robust safeguard."

The CJC's proposals were previously met with concerns from legal experts that the rules could become unhelpful if they end up blocking AI tools that improve witness statements or become a tick-box exercise that would not prevent irresponsible lawyers from misusing the tech. 

--Editing by Joe Millis.

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