How AI Simplifies Legal Work – Institute for Legal Informatics Unveils New AI Tools
Professor Georg Borges, Executive Director of the Institute for Legal Informatics at Saarland University, Photo: © Iris Maurer
AI can free up more time for lawyers to focus on their actual legal work: At the EDV-Gerichtstag conference, taking place September 23 – 25 on the Saarbrücken campus, the Institute for Legal Informatics at Saarland University will present AI tools for research, teaching, and student studies. Professor Georg Borges estimates that AI could take over as much as 70 to 80 percent of the effort involved in otherwise time-consuming tasks such as searching for legal precedents.
The legal IT specialist and his team have developed tools for specific use cases, which they have bundled—along with instructions—in the free and openly available “Legal Work with AI” toolbox—ranging from brainstorming and research to text review.
The following text has been machine translated from the German with no human editing.
In legal work, there are numerous tasks that take a great deal of time. One example is searching for references. “Research has traditionally accounted for a significant portion of working hours when dealing with legal texts,” explains Professor Georg Borges, Executive Director of the Institute for Legal Informatics. Borges and his team have developed an automated reference search tool for this purpose. “In our experience, this can save 70 to 80 percent of working time. Using the latest AI models, we’ve achieved a real breakthrough here,” says the legal informatics expert, citing an example: “I was able to automatically insert 200 individual citations into my most recent essay in one hour; verifying them took three days.”
The Saarbrücken Law Toolbox currently includes a dozen such applications for drafting legal texts for research and academic study. “For future lawyers, the professional use of AI tools is a key skill,” says Borges. The toolbox makes it easier to use them.
“The tools we’ve developed address tasks that are central to everyday legal work. In academic writing, for example, AI helps organize thoughts, improve outlines, and refine drafts. As a critical discussion partner, it can also help scrutinize arguments and identify potential weaknesses in legal reasoning,” explains the legal informatics expert.
The toolbox also includes useful tools for studying and teaching: “Here, use cases range from digital index cards to transcribing lectures and interviews. This also includes creating presentation slides based on sample legal solutions and condensing lengthy slide decks,” says Georg Borges. The AI-powered citation search is particularly interesting in this context as well. “Anyone writing an essay, a dissertation, or a term paper needs sources to support specific claims. Especially when dealing with specialized topics, finding a suitable passage can be time-consuming,” says Borges. AI should not merely suggest literature on the same topic, but rather identify specific sources. References to opposing viewpoints are also valuable for critically evaluating one’s own arguments.
“The AI services can be linked to researchers’ own collections of specialized literature. This allows researchers to build on materials they have already compiled for their work,” explains the lawyer. This presents an opportunity to significantly streamline time-consuming search work and create more space for in-depth analysis of the content. Borges and his team have developed additional AI tools for analyzing formal text errors, verifying citations, and checking bibliographies for potentially fabricated sources.
Borges emphasizes that what is important in all of this is that humans must always remain in control of the process and understand their role in this context: “Responsibility for the use of AI always rests with humans: It must always be verified by an expert whether, for example, a reference is reliable and whether the original source actually supports a claim,” says Georg Borges.
The free and openly available toolbox will be presented in an interactive format at the Institute for Legal Informatics’ booth during the EDV-Gerichtstag, September 23–25, 2026, in Building B4 1 at Saarland University.
You can find the press release for the IT Law Conference itself at the following web link: https://www.uni-saarland.de/aktuell/edvgt-2026-50529.html
For more information, please visit the Institute for Legal Informatics’ website:
https://www.rechtsinformatik.saarland
You can find the press release for the IT Law Conference itself at the following web link: https://www.uni-saarland.de/aktuell/edvgt-2026-50529.html
About the Institute for Legal Informatics
The Institute for Legal Informatics at Saarland University is one of Germany’s leading research institutions in its field. It conducts research and teaches on the legal and technical issues of the digital world. Topics include IT security, data protection, electronic court proceedings, digital administration, smart energy systems, and issues related to autonomous systems. In addition, the institute is committed to training the next generation of scholars. This includes specialized courses, certificate programs, and a master’s program in information technology and law.
Questions answered by:
Prof. Dr. Georg Borges, Institute for Legal Informatics, Saarland University
Phone: +49 (0)681 302-3105 ; E-Mail: georg.borges(at)uni-saarland.de