The Judiciary of Trinidad and Tobago has issued a new Practice Direction on the responsible and ethical use of Generative AI in court.

Trinidad and Tobago has now joined both Jamaica and The Bahamas, which both issued Practice Directions on the use of Generative AI in 2025.

The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) issued its own Practice Direction prohibiting the use of generative AI to create or alter evidentiary materials (such as witness stataements) and also requiring full human accountability for any AI-assisted submissions.

Trinidad and Tobago’s Chief Justice, Ronnie Boodoosingh, said he “should not wish AI to be deciding cases for us… It can provide useful data for us to make human decisions.”

Under the new Practice Direction, the court requires “disclosure whenever AI has been used in preparing court documents, including certification of the AI tool used and confirmation that all legal authorities have been independently verified.”

Further, it “prohibits the use of AI to generate evidence, including affidavits and witness statements, except for limited formatting and language assistance.”

More importantly, AI cannot be used “in judicial reasoning or drafting judgments” and is restricted to administrative and research functions, subject to verification of all facts, authorities, and legal citations.

The Chief Justice said court users must explicitly disclose and certify any AI use.

Indeed, under the new Practice Direction, which was published in the Trinidad and Tobago Gazette on July 9, the Court is empowered “to require additional disclosure and impose sanctions where AI is misused in court proceedings.”

“The question is not whether AI should be used, but how can we responsibly use AI as a tool to assist us in making the human judgments that we need to make,” Chief Justice Ronnie Boodoosingh said in a statement issued on Friday.