In a global legal first, an AI-powered law firm that has regulatory approval has won its first court trial.

Garfield AI, the world’s first AI law firm authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), has just been successful in a small claim for a freelancer to win against a hospitality business.

The case involved Tamires Camal Taquidir, a freelancer who used the AI platform to pursue £7,000 in unpaid HR service fees from a hospitality business.

Following a three-hour trial at Wandsworth County Court in May, the court ruled entirely in favour of the claimant and dismissed a counterclaim brought by the defendant.

Garfield AI was the first law firm to be authorised by the SRA to provide legal services through AI in May 2025. The startup firm specialises in English small-claims debt recovery for as little as the cost of a cup of coffee.

For the freelancer, the tech firm, founded by lawyer Philip Young and quantum physicist Daniel Long, handled all pre-trial heavy lifting, including generating pre-action correspondence, issuing court proceedings, producing documents, and preparing four witness statements and trial bundles.

However, for the trial, the AI firm instructed junior barrister Dominic Li of One Essex Court to handle the advocacy in court.

The case shows ‘what legal AI can do’

Commenting on the result, Young said: “This is a landmark moment, not just for Garfield AI, but for access to justice.”

“For too long, businesses have been forced to write off debts because the cost, time and stress of litigation made pursuing them uneconomic.”

“AI did not replace the judge, the barrister or the legal system. What it did was make the process more accessible, more efficient and more affordable, so that a meritorious claimant could get to the point where her case could be heard, and justice could be done,” he added.

Long noted, “This case shows what legal AI can do in the real world. It is not about gimmicks or replacing lawyers… We are still at the beginning of this journey, but the momentum is already clear.”

So far, Garfield AI has seen more than 600 claims initiated on its platform, and in just over one year it has recovered and resolved over £500,000 for users, with individual claim values ranging from £30 to £10,000.

AI in the courts has hit the headlines in recent weeks after Pinsent Masons was criticised by a High Court judge after one of its lawyers sent the court AI-generated letters containing false legal information. This came after an elite US firm, Sullivan & Cromwell, across the pond, had to apologise in April for multiple AI hallucinations in a bankruptcy case.