Existing AI Tools for Criminal Defense

This library is an informational starting point and does not constitute endorsement of any product or vendor. Product capabilities, pricing, models, terms, subprocessors, and data practices change. Any statements in the “Implementation” sections are vendor-reported and should be verified for the exact product, plan, version, deployment, and review date before use with defense information. Use in another legal sector is not evidence that a tool is suitable for public defense. Offices should independently evaluate confidentiality, security, accuracy, bias, accessibility, supervision, contract terms, public-defense fit, and the consequences of error. 

JusticeText – AI-Powered Video and Audio Transcription for Evidence Analysis

Functionality: JusticeText is an AI-driven platform designed specifically for public defenders. It automatically transcribes police body-camera footage, 911 calls, jail phone calls, and other audio/video evidence, enabling defenders to quickly search transcripts for relevant statements.

Implementation:

  • Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy (DPA): Implemented JusticeText to handle the surge of bodycam footage in cases. Kentucky DPA defenders reported that JusticeText reduced time spent reviewing evidence by hours per case, allowing them to find key contradictions in police statements more efficiently. However, funding limitations meant that not all defenders statewide had access to the tool. (JusticeText)
  • Santa Cruz County Public Defender (CA): Adopted JusticeText to streamline discovery review, ensuring that attorneys could quickly locate and analyze critical evidence. Public Defender Heather Rogers noted that AI-assisted transcription enabled her office to process evidence faster and spend more time on client advocacy. (Santa Cruz PD Implementation)

Reduct.Video – AI-Driven Transcription and Video Evidence Management

Functionality: Reduct.Video provides AI-generated transcriptions and searchable video evidence management. It includes a human-in-the-loop option for high-accuracy transcription.

Implementation:

  • Colorado State Public Defender: Deployed Reduct to transcribe bodycam footage and police interrogations, making video evidence review more efficient. Attorneys could highlight key clips, generate captions, and create court exhibits. Reduct reduced the time required for evidence processing and improved courtroom presentation of video evidence. (Reduct)

Bearister AI

Functionality: Bearister.ai is an AI-powered legal research and smart assistant tool designed to support criminal defense lawyers and public-interest legal work. Its legal research feature provides attorneys access to federal and state opinions, incorporating sources such as CFR and the Federal Register. It also enables attorneys to quickly summarize and analyze uploaded documents, draft motions, and organize exhibits grounded in relevant statutes. (BearisterAI)

Casetext CoCounsel (Thomson Reuters) – AI-Powered Legal Research and Drafting

Functionality: CoCounsel assists attorneys by conducting legal research, drafting motions, summarizing discovery, and preparing deposition questions.

Implementation:

  • Miami-Dade Public Defender’s Office: The first PD office in the U.S. to integrate CoCounsel, providing 100 attorneys access to the AI research assistant. The tool significantly reduced legal research time and improved efficiency in drafting motions and trial prep. Attorneys noted that CoCounsel helped generate cross-examination questions and identify overlooked case law. However, due to budget constraints, not all defenders received licenses. (Miami-Dade CoCounsel Implementation)

California Public Defenders Association Motion Bank 

Functionality: The California Public Defenders Association (CPDA) Motion Bank, developed by the Berkeley Technology and Justice Lab, organizes decades of motions, filings, and resources into a searchable database. The tool can be used for case research and preparation, and users may upload their own documents for fellow attorneys to view, modernizing collaboration among public defenders. The Motion Bank also includes automated redaction, allowing users to upload files while remaining compliant with confidentiality requirements. 
 
Implementation: 
 

SentencingStats – AI-Driven Sentencing Analytics

Functionality: SentencingStats is a machine-learning platform that analyzes federal sentencing data and generates statistical reports on likely sentencing outcomes based on historical trends.

Implementation:

  • Federal defenders have begun utilizing SentencingStats to support sentencing advocacy and mitigation efforts. By analyzing trends in judicial decisions, attorneys can present data-backed arguments for reduced sentences, demonstrating disparities or inconsistencies in sentencing patterns. (SentencingStats)

Westlaw Edge & Lexis+ AI – AI-Powered Legal Research

Functionality: These AI-enhanced legal research tools allow attorneys to quickly identify relevant case law, analyze opposing briefs, and draft legal arguments.

Implementation:

  • Larger criminal defense firms and well-funded attorneys have integrated these tools to accelerate legal research and ensure comprehensive case preparation. AI-powered brief analysis features have been particularly useful for identifying missing citations and legal precedents. (Westlaw AI | Lexis+ AI)

Relativity by Justice for Change

Functionality: Offers a broad, end-to-end e-discovery and investigation platform designed to manage diverse data types (text, email, chat, multimedia indirectly via processing/review) across the entire litigation lifecycle, from data collection and processing through review, analysis, and production.11 Its AI capabilities are integrated to enhance these core workflow stages.

(https://www.relativity.com/company/commitments/social-impact/justice-for-change/ | https://www.relativity.com/data-solutions/air/ )

Implementation: Contact the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office for more info on using Relativity for RJA work.

MateyAI

Functionality: A tool that organizes and analyzes criminal eDiscovery—AI built specifically for criminal defense.

https://www.matey.ai/

 

Everlaw – Cloud Native Ediscovery Platform 

Functionality: Everlaw is a cloud-based litigation and e-discovery platform that helps legal teams streamline the review and production of case materials for investigations and trails. It offers a variety of AI and machine-learning tools that supports advanced data analytics and visualization and faster, more accurate evidence search, review, and production. https://www.everlaw.com/everlaw-for-good/

Implementation:
  • Civil Rights Corps: Through Everlaw for Good, Everlaw has partnered with the Civil Rights Corps to streamline litigation efforts. Their e-discovery platform enabled CRC to quickly search through thousands of files while using the Storybuilder feature to track the most critical documents across three defendants, collaborate virtually, and successfully prepare for depositions. Everlaw has saved the CRC months of manual review time and tens of thousands of dollars by reducing the amount of data they had to manually sift through by 50%. 

NiCE Justice

Functionality: NiCE Justice is a cloud-based digital evidence management system that helps prosecutors, public defenders, and courts to collect, organize, and analyze large amounts of evidence. The platform also includes automated transcription, redaction, and analytics tools, helping legal teams streamline workflows and build cases faster.

Implementation:

  • Alameda County District Attorney’s Office: The Alameda DA’s Office has partnered with NiCE Justice to streamline their digital evidence workflows. This partnership has helped the DA’s office eliminate time-consuming manual processes, such as physical evidence transfer, and allow for greater collaboration over digital evidence via a unified, cloud-based system. NiCE Justice has improved efficiency and transparency across the justice process, enabling faster case preparation and collaboration with law enforcement and victims’ advocates.

LegalServer

Functionality: LegalServer is an AI-integrated case management platform with features designed to help public defenders manage large volumes of case information efficiently. Their tools include audio and video transcription, image recognition, optical character recognition (OCR), advanced search across file types, and customizable AI assistants.

Implementation:

  • The Snohomish County Public Defender’s Office in Washington State uses LegalServer’s data and reporting capabilities to track how much time cases actually take. This is something their director Jason Schwarz  noted they had “no way of really knowing” before. They also rely on LegalServer to manage conflicts of interest, flagging every client, case, and witness across the office automatically, which helps them “move forward as an organization in a cost-effective way, and … to provide a better service.”

Clearview AI 

Functionality: JusticeClearview is an investigative platform that helps public defenders quickly identify witnesses, correct misidentifications, and identify exculpatory evidence. Their platform includes 70+ billion facial images sourced from public websites including news media, mugshot websites, public social media, and more to help identify witnesses or persons of interest that could change the course of justice. 

Implementation:

  • JusticeClearview’s facial recognition tool has been used to help exonerate an individual that was wrongfully convicted and sentenced to 15 years in Florida for vehicular homicide. Clearview AI granted the individual’s lawyer special access to its facial recognition database, identifying the good Samaritan who pulled Conlyn from the car and ultimately identifying him as the passenger. Because of its success in that case, Clearview began offering the technology to public defenders at little to no cost. They have been recognized for their high privacy standards and have been used by police departments from El Cerrito to Oklahoma in identifying wrongful arrests.

Sonix

Functionality: Sonix is a widely adopted accurate and audit-ready AI transcription platform with 99% accuracy. This platform can help public defenders get reliable, searchable transcripts in minutes, from depositions to discovery. Sonix also offers enterprise-grade security, speaker identification, AI analysis, and case review tools. 

Implementation:

  • Sonix is positioned for public defenders who need fast, secure, multilingual interrogation transcription with audit-ready output and sensitive content redaction. This gives defense teams the ability to quickly search and analyze hours of bodycam footage, 911 calls, and witness recordings. Sonix has been used by various media companies, researchers, legal teams, and healthcare organizations for accurate speech-to-text at scale, including ESPN, ABC News, and more.

Vlex

Functionality: Vlex offers an AI legal assistant named Vincent, which assists with legal research, litigation, and transactions with precision-engineered AI that adapts to workflows and delivers reliable insights. Vincent provides public defenders with access to over one billion legal documents from 100+ countries, with tools for AI-powered research, litigation intelligence, smart drafting, and document analysis backed by 25+ years of legal data expertise.

Implementation:

  • Vlex has partnered with bar associations across the United States, from California Bar Association to the New York City Bar Association, in addition to private and public legal service organizations. Their services have been used by the American Bar Association, the University of Oxford, BakerHosteler, and more. 

New Jersey OPD Resource Library

Functionality: The NJ OPD together with Princeton University developed the OPD Resource Library, an AI-powered search tool to surface relevant information within the office. Given a legal question, the tool searches through appellate briefs, internal documents, and public directives, and returns the most relevant ones. The library makes the collective knowledge of the office accessible to all employees within seconds. Defenders can use the retrieved briefs as templates or references to streamline the drafting process.

Implementation:

  • Closed-source system only accessible to NJOPD employees.

Further Reading: