Skip to content
SafeLegalAI

72 on the record · +1 this week

guidance diffAI in CourtsAI Governance

Ireland's AI guidance for lawyers and judges: the version record

The Law Society of Ireland's GenAI guidelines, the Judicial Council's guidelines for judges, and the Court of Appeal's five principles — dated and sourced.

Daman Kaur

Ireland’s AI guidance comes from three sources: the Law Society (for solicitors), the Judicial Council (for judges), and the Court of Appeal (binding on litigants through case law). This is the dated record of each, with a correction to a widely repeated error about the Law Society’s timeline.

Law Society of Ireland

The Law Society’s “Guidelines for the Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence by the Legal Profession in Ireland” were published on 12 November 2025; the current PDF is version 4, cover-dated December 2025.

A correction worth stating plainly: the guidance is not from February 2025. That date belongs to a separate Law Society note, “Navigating the EU AI Act: Prohibited AI Systems” (13 February 2025), which secondary summaries have conflated with the generative-AI conduct guidelines. No GenAI-guidance version exists before November 2025.

Its requirements: the solicitor takes full responsibility for the output and must be able to explain the reasoning; unverified AI content must never be assumed correct or used without independent verification; consumer tools are unsuitable for client data; and solicitors should be transparent about AI use, including considering a reference in client engagement letters.

Judicial Council of Ireland

The Judicial Council’s “Guidelines for Judges on the Responsible Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence” carry a “June 2024” date on the document itself but were publicly released on 6 November 2025. This is one document, not two versions — reports of a separate “November 2025 revision” conflate the drafting date with the release date. A more detailed practice note was reported as forthcoming in May 2026 but has not yet issued.

The guidelines permit judges to use GenAI for summaries, speeches, and administrative tasks, but not for legal research or analysis; require verification of all output; prohibit entering private or confidential information into public chatbots; require support staff to disclose their GenAI use to the supervising judge; and list “red flags” of AI-generated submissions, including American spelling and references to foreign cases.

Court of Appeal — the binding layer

Unlike the guidance above, the Court of Appeal’s five principles in Guerin v O’Doherty [2026] IECA 48 apply to litigants directly, with the court holding sanction as a stated possibility. The court set them out as general guidance for parties: responsible use, express disclosure of AI use to the court and other parties, and independent verification of every authority. In practice that makes Ireland a disclosure jurisdiction for parties who use AI.

Version summary

Body Document Date Status
Law Society of Ireland GenAI guidelines for the profession (v4) 12 Nov 2025 (cover Dec 2025) Current
Judicial Council Guidelines for Judges dated June 2024, released Nov 2025 Current
Judicial Council Detailed practice note reported May 2026 Not yet issued
Court of Appeal Guerin v O’Doherty five principles 26 Mar 2026 Guidance for parties

Sources