Checklist · Child Protection & Care Proceedings
Checklist: AI-assisted review of subpoenaed casework files in care proceedings
Step-by-step checklist for using an approved AI tool to index and chronologise large subpoenaed departmental files, with clearance, redaction, source-citation and verification steps so outputs can be safely relied on.
- Kind
- Checklist. Steps or checks to work through and tick off.
- Where it applies
- New South Wales
- AI use
- Yellow AI can help in set ways. A lawyer checks specific points before use.
- Law stated as at
- 17 October 2026
- Status
- Maintained. Checked on 17 October 2026 against the 4 authorities it cites, for New South Wales.
- Version
- 1
- Source
- Written for this library
When to use it
Use when a subpoena return or served departmental file is too large to review manually in the time available and the firm has an Approved Tool under its child records protocol. Do not use if the protocol's clearance cannot be completed.
How AI may be used
Summaries and chronologies of large casework files speed preparation, but every entry must be checked against the source page before it is relied on in evidence, conference or cross-examination. Excluded information never enters the tool.
AI may
- Index documents by date, type, author and page
- Extract dated entries into a chronology distinguishing observation from report
- List entries relevant to issues the lawyer has defined, with page citations
AI must not
- Must not process the file before clearance and redaction are recorded
- Must not summarise or paraphrase the child's words
- Must not characterise parents, carers or workers or draw conclusions about risk
The lawyer checks
- Clearance, permitted use and redaction recorded
- Sampling and full verification of entries used in court
- Nothing put to a witness or the Court rests on an unverified AI entry
Method: how the Green, Yellow and Red levels are decided. This is guidance for planning, not legal advice.
Read the full text
The full text is for signed-in accounts. It is free. When you sign in you can:
- read the whole precedent, with its drafting notes beside it;
- copy it, or download it as a Word file or Markdown;
- add it to your firm’s knowledge base, so colleagues can find it;
- let the AI tools you connect read it from that knowledge base.
The summary, the law it rests on and the AI-use guidance above stay public. Privacy.
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