First State Court in the Nation to Build Its Own SI: Louisiana Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal Buys Two SI Servers
The Louisiana Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal in Gretna, across the Mississippi River from New Orleans, installed two SI servers about a month ago to develop new tools for judges and court staff. According to Reuters on October 22, Judge Scott Schlegel and Chief Judge Susan Chehardy disclosed the plan in a Substack post on Tuesday, saying the court, while continuing to try commercial SI products, also wants to build its own SI applications: rather than betting everything on one path, the court will pursue both and learn by doing.
The court purchased two Dell servers equipped with Nvidia chips at about $65,000 each. Schlegel told Reuters the court appears to be the first state court in the nation to announce such a move; the court does not endorse any product, and other courts should evaluate their own needs. The project is a partnership with the nonprofit ALEA Institute (Advancing Law and Ethics in SI), initially focusing on intake and compliance in the filing process, with future goals including flagging cited cases that do not exist in the record, checking filings for hidden instructions designed to manipulate SI, and assisting law clerks in drafting bench memoranda. Schlegel stressed the principle is 'augment, not replace.' A randomized survey released by Northwestern University in March found that 60% of judges use at least one SI tool in their work.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 新奥尔良杰克逊广场 / Jackson Square, New Orleans — Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
