The Fairfax County Circuit Court, in a May 22 order in Fairfax v. Fairfax (Judge Timothy McEvoy), denied a non-party request from Lauren Burke to obtain an uncertified, machine-generated transcript of the child custody trial, per Reason. The order, quoted by Reason, states the Uncertified Transcript is machine-generated by natural language processing AI, is provided for informational purposes only, and is "replete with errors, omissions, and other inaccuracies." The court noted a qualified court reporter attended the trial and that certified transcripts are preferred under Virginia law, citing Code § 8.01-420.3, per the same order. The court concluded that releasing the uncertified transcript would create a substantial risk of misrepresenting the proceedings and would be contrary to the best interests of the children, per Reason.
What happened
The Fairfax County Circuit Court issued a May 22 order in Fairfax v. Fairfax (Judge Timothy McEvoy) denying a non-party request by Lauren Burke for an uncertified transcript of the child custody trial, per the May 22 order quoted by Reason. The order states the Uncertified Transcript is "machine-generated by natural language processing artificial intelligence software" and that the court found it "replete with errors, omissions, and other inaccuracies" so it does not constitute an accurate record of testimony, argument, and rulings, per the order quoted by Reason. The order also notes a qualified court reporter attended the trial and cites Virginia Code § 8.01-420.3, saying certified transcripts are the preferred method of recording proceedings, per the same order.
Technical details
The May 22 order, as quoted by Reason, records that the court began making Uncertified Transcripts available to parties for informational purposes but that these are "not checked, proofread, or corrected" and "are not official Court records and may not be relied upon" absent agreement of the parties and further court order. The order records that the requestor, Lauren Burke, was neither a party nor a witness and that the Uncertified Transcript was reviewed by the court and found materially unreliable, per the order quoted by Reason.
Editorial analysis: Courts, court reporters, and vendors are encountering a tradeoff between faster machine transcription and the evidentiary standards courts require. Observers covering similar cases note that machine-generated transcripts often have speaker-attribution errors, omission of colloquy, and misrendering of legal terminology, which can be consequential in sensitive family and custody matters.
What to watch
Monitor whether other jurisdictions adopt policies that:
- •formally label machine transcripts as uncertified or informational only
- •require vendor disclosures about error rates and model provenance
- •specify procedures for redaction or access limits in cases involving minors. These indicators will influence how legal teams, reporters, and transcription vendors balance speed, cost, and reliability when AI tools are used in court settings
Scoring Rationale #
This court order is notable for practitioners because it is a concrete, public instance where a judge rejected distribution of an AI-generated transcript due to accuracy concerns. The ruling highlights legal and evidentiary limits on machine transcription in sensitive proceedings.
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