SRA warning notice
Can solicitors use AI? The SRA rules, duty by duty
Updated
The SRA does not ban any tool. It sets the outcome and leaves the method to the firm, so AI is allowed wherever the existing Code is still met.
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What the SRA allows
Freedom to use AI
The SRA's outcomes-focused approach means firms have the freedom to use AI tools and adopt new ways of working, provided they ensure that they meet its standards.
Source: SRA warning notice: Misuse of AI (17 August 2026)
You stay accountable
AI has no separate legal personality. A solicitor who uses it to deliver legal services remains accountable for the work and its outputs, however that work was prepared.
Source: SRA warning notice: Misuse of AI (17 August 2026)
The duties that apply
Competence and supervision
The service must be competent and the work effectively supervised (paragraphs 3.2 and 3.5 of the Code of Conduct for Solicitors). A supervisor who lets false citations reach the court without adequate review can be in breach too.
Source: SRA warning notice: Misuse of AI (17 August 2026)
Systems and controls
Firms must have governance, systems and controls that manage the risks, including those from AI (paragraph 2.1 of the Code of Conduct for Firms), and the COLP must take reasonable steps to make sure they are followed.
Source: SRA warning notice: Misuse of AI (17 August 2026)
Nothing false before the court
Representations to the court must be properly arguable (paragraph 2.4). Every case cited should be genuine, relevant and verifiable. Putting false material before the court may also be contempt.
Source: SRA warning notice: Misuse of AI (17 August 2026)
Client confidentiality
Client information should only go into an AI system where contractual, technical and organisational safeguards protect it (paragraph 6.3 of both Codes). Free and paid tools alike may store or reuse what is typed in.
Source: SRA warning notice: Misuse of AI (17 August 2026)
What went wrong in the cases
Ayinde v Haringey
False AI-generated citations were put before the court. The solicitor and barrister faced a wasted costs application and were referred to their regulators, and the court said reliance on AI is no defence.
Source: R (Ayinde) v Haringey LBC [2025] EWHC 1383 (Admin)
An AI-only firm is possible
The SRA authorised Garfield.Law as the first purely AI-based firm in England and Wales after checking it could meet the rules: it cannot propose case law, and acts only on steps the client approves.