Judiciary acquires judgment writing tool to quicken justice

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In a bid to ensure the timely delivery of judgments, the Judiciary has acquired a tool to help judicial officers write their decisions more efficiently.

Court of Appeal Judge Geoffrey Kiryabwire, the brain behind the innovation, made the revelation during a training session aimed at building institutional capacity in the use of the tool at the Judiciary headquarters in Kampala on Wednesday (March 4).

“This tool is not going to write the judgments for us, but it is only going to quicken the way we work as it contains a template, list of all national laws and decided cases. With this tool, judges will no longer have to look for laws and decide cases elsewhere because they will be readily available to them, hence reducing the time we take to do legal research,” Kiryabwire said.

Embedded within Microsoft Word, the tool was developed by the Judiciary in collaboration with the Lexis-Nexis Rule of Law Foundation.

Justice Kiryabwire said the tool is a technology-driven innovation designed to enhance the speed, structure and quality of judicial decisions.

“This judgment writing tool is therefore envisioned to contribute towards so many efforts geared at reducing case backlog. So, this is another effort in backlog reduction,” Justice Kiryabwire said.

Judicial officers are required to deliver judgments within 60 days after hearing cases. However, delayed delivery remains a significant challenge within the justice system, with some decisions delivered a year later.

Justice Kiryabwire said the judgment writing tool will be a gamechanger for the Judiciary. He added that efforts are underway to incorporate additional features, including Artificial Intelligence, to enable judges to edit and search for more relevant content.

He revealed that similar tools are used in Denmark, Mexico and Myanmar, where they have proved effective. Kiryabwire said he conceived the idea in 2012 and that it has since been his long-held ambition.

Afsoon McClellan, the lead consultant from Lexis-Nexis, said the innovation reflects a shared commitment to strengthening the rule of law.

“Lexis-Nexis has worked alongside the Judiciary to develop and refine this tool. This judgment writing tool was intentionally built to integrate into your existing workflow within Microsoft Word, capable of offline use and grounded in the template developed from Uganda’s jurisprudence,” McClellan said.

McClellan emphasised that the tool is rooted in Uganda’s own legal traditions and priorities. She urged judicial officers to provide feedback to improve its functionality.

“I invite you to help us identify areas for improvement as we use the tool,” McClellan said.

Caroline Obbo, a researcher with Lexis-Nexis, said the tool will help judicial officers write and deliver judgments more quickly.

“Most of the judges indicated that their access to national laws was through the Uganda Legal Information Institute (ULII), and that is why we use it to populate cases on the tool,” Obbo said.

According to the 2025 Judiciary National Court Case Census report, the Judiciary is grappling with more than 167,353 cases. Delayed delivery of judgments remains a major concern.