Bahamas | Regulatory Framework
Status: in force
Effective: 2025-11-05
high Practice Direction 3/2025 on the use of generative AI in court proceedings (Bahamas)
Practice Direction No. 3 of 2025 — A Practice Direction to Provide a Guide to the Use of Generative AI in Court Proceedings
I. Regulatory Summary
Introduces court-facing compliance controls for GenAI use in litigation in The Bahamas. Attorneys and other court users must implement a verification workflow for legal citations and ensure appropriate disclosure/certification in filings. Teams must adopt strict confidentiality controls for prompts/inputs and plan for ‘leave required’ scenarios (notably expert reports and certain annexures), with potential procedural sanctions and cost consequences for non-compliance.
II. Full Description
**Instrument**: Practice Direction No. 3 of 2025 — A guide to the use of Generative AI in Court Proceedings.
**Commencement and duration**: Commences on 5 November 2025 and remains in force until varied, replaced or revoked.
**Key concepts (definitions)**
- Defines ‘Generative AI (GenAI)’ and ‘hallucination’ (fabricated but plausible outputs, including fake citations and cases).
- Defines ‘court users’ broadly; defines ‘documents’ for filing and notes exclusions (e.g., affidavits/witness statements as evidentiary material).
**Application**
Applies to all proceedings in all courts in The Bahamas and covers both open- and closed-source GenAI models.
**Core obligations**
- Accountability and accuracy: users remain responsible for accuracy, appropriateness and relevance of filed material; legal research assisted by GenAI must be verified.
- Confidentiality: prohibits input of privileged/sensitive information into public chatbots/insecure AI platforms.
- Disclosure: the Court may require disclosure of GenAI use; for written submissions and skeleton arguments, GenAI use must be indicated and authorities verified.
**Leave and restricted uses**
- Leave may be obtained to annex GenAI-generated documents/exhibits, with required details on tool/version/settings/benefit/inputs.
- GenAI must not be used for expert reports without prior leave; if leave is granted, disclosure obligations apply.
**Enforcement**
Provides for procedural sanctions including striking out submissions, refusing improperly verified documents, and imposing costs.
**Source file**: BS - 20251105 - Practice-Direction-3-of-2025.pdf
III. Scope & Application
Applies to all proceedings in all courts in The Bahamas and covers both open-source and closed-source generative AI (GenAI) models. Defines ‘court users’ broadly (including attorneys, court staff, researchers and self-represented litigants) and sets accountability, verification and disclosure expectations for GenAI-assisted materials filed in court. Restricts input of privileged/sensitive information into public or insecure AI platforms and establishes ‘leave required’ categories (e.g., expert reports and certain annexures). Includes procedural sanctions for non-compliance.
IV. Policy Impact Assessment
Introduces court-facing compliance controls for GenAI use in litigation in The Bahamas. Attorneys and other court users must implement a verification workflow for legal citations and ensure appropriate disclosure/certification in filings. Teams must adopt strict confidentiality controls for prompts/inputs and plan for ‘leave required’ scenarios (notably expert reports and certain annexures), with potential procedural sanctions and cost consequences for non-compliance.
Primary Focus: procedural court ai rules