The problem
Before a trial, the defense needs to know exactly where the prosecution witnesses disagree with each other and with the client's interview: times, distances, descriptions, who said what. If a firm prepares 4 trials a month and lining the statements up by hand takes 5 hours each, that's 20 hours a month, often on a fixed fee.
What the AI does
Claude compares long documents loaded together in one chat: up to 20 files, with PDFs of up to 1,000 pages. The solicitor uploads the witness statements, the interview transcript and the exhibit list, and asks for a table of every point where the accounts differ, each with the document, page and paragraph and the exact words. The solicitor reads each passage in the original, decides which differences matter and prepares cross-examination and instructions to counsel. Served evidence holds criminal offense data and details of complainants and witnesses, so the firm uses the Team plan, which doesn't train on business data by default, approved by its COLP and data protection lead. The defense case is the solicitor's; Claude only points to where the accounts differ.
A worked example
A two-solicitor criminal defense firm in Leicester prepares about 4 trials a month in the magistrates' and Crown Court. Both solicitors use Claude Team to line up the statements in each case, then check every row before preparing cross-examination.
Before
5 hours lining up statements and the interview by hand for each of 4 trials: 20 hours a month
After
About 2.5 hours each, including reading every passage cited: 10 hours a month
What it's worth
About $532£400€476A$768C$752 a month in solicitor time saved, against about $40£30€36A$58C$56 to $51£38€45A$73C$71 for two Claude Team seats. 2.5 hours saved on each of 4 trials is 10 hours, at an assumed $53£40€48A$77C$75 an hour.
How to set it up
- Have the COLP and data protection lead approve Claude Team against the firm's information security policy, then set it up: $20 (about $20£15€18A$29C$28) per user a month billed annually, or $25 (about $25£19€23A$36C$36) billed monthly, minimum 2 users.
- Upload the served statements, the interview transcript and the exhibit list in one chat as text-searchable PDFs.
- Ask for a table of every difference in times, places, descriptions and words spoken, with the document, page and paragraph and the exact wording.
- Read each cited passage in the original and mark which differences matter to the defense case.
- Prepare cross-examination notes and instructions to counsel yourself, keeping the table as a working note on the file.
What goes wrong
- Claude can miss a difference, create one by paraphrasing, or cite the wrong paragraph. Nothing goes into cross-examination until the solicitor has read the original passage.
- Body-worn video, CCTV and phone downloads aren't in the statements. Review them separately; the table covers only the text uploaded.
- Personal plans train on chats unless opted out, which isn't acceptable for served evidence. Use Team and upload only the material the comparison needs.
- In PDFs over 100 pages Claude reads text only, and scanned statements with no text layer may come through blank. Run them through OCR and check nothing is missing.