Trinidad & Tobago Issues First Binding AI Practice Direction — Judicial Officers Must Disclose Too

Chief Justice Ronnie Boodoosingh signed the Practice Direction on the Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence on July 7, 2026, published in the Trinidad and Tobago Gazette July 9 and effective immediately — the first formal, binding AI guidance for T&T courts. The framework is structured, not prohibitory: AI may be used for chronologies, summaries, and limited drafting assistance, but the substantive content of affidavits, witness statements, and expert opinions must remain entirely the work of the human deponent or expert. Every document using AI must carry a disclosure certificate naming the specific tool and version, describing how it was used, and confirming that all legal authorities have been personally verified. Critically, the practice direction applies to judicial officers as well as lawyers: judges may use AI for summaries, chronologies, and identifying issues, but not for reasoning, weighing evidence, or editing draft judgments — and Court of Appeal judges must disclose AI use to co-panelists. For legal innovators tracking the global spread of AI court governance, T&T's framework is notable for three features: it applies to the bench as well as the bar; it requires tool-specific disclosure (name and version); and it explicitly models the human-AI division of labor rather than defaulting to prohibition.