In Camera

Chambers assistant

Your chambers. Your machine. Your data.

In Camera runs entirely on one computer in chambers. It reads every word of a filing, checks every citation against law stored on that computer, and says plainly what it does not know. It organises; the judge decides.

Every word read. Every citation checked.

The problem

Pro se filings now arrive drafted with AI. They read well, and some cite cases that do not exist or quote statutes with words the statute does not contain. Checking every citation by hand takes time chambers does not have, and cloud tools ask the court to send its filings to someone else's computer.

The approach

Keep everything in chambers. In Camera works offline, on a computer the court owns, against a law library stored on that computer. Every check it makes can be traced to the text it relied on, and every result says what it did and what it did not do.

What it does for chambers

Reads every word

In Camera reads the whole filing, including scanned and handwritten pages, and reports any page it could not read. The original filing is one click away, and every paragraph reference opens it at the page.

Checks every citation

It checks each citation and quotation against the law on the computer and shows, with its reason, any case that appears invented, any quotation that does not match, and any subsection that does not exist.

Screens the complaint

It lists what the complaint says about jurisdiction, in forma pauperis, PLRA exhaustion and the other screening questions, and the defenses apparent on its face, each pinned to its paragraph.

Lays out the elements

Count by count, it shows each element with its source, the paragraphs that allege it and the computer's reading. Where an element turns on judgment, it says the decision is the judge's.

Compares filings

It sets an earlier complaint beside a new one and quotes, side by side, every date, person and allegation that changed.

Prepares drafts

It writes a bench memo and a draft memorandum and order as editable Word files, in the court's own format and the judge's typeface, with drafting notes on a final page, never in the body.

A numbered path guides the user through a matter: 1 the filing, 2 citations, 3 jurisdiction and screening, 4 elements, 5 matter history, 6 drafts. Any step stays one click away.

Why a judge can trust it

It cannot invent authority

Every case, quotation and paragraph the computer cites must be on the machine, word for word, or In Camera sets the result aside and lists it. Which cases bind is set by fixed rules, not by the AI.

It says what it did

Every result carries a plain account of what In Camera checked, what it relied on and what it did not do, with the full technical record one click away.

It never cuts silently

When a task would need more than the computer can read at once, In Camera stops and says why, rather than trimming the law to fit.

Owned by the court

  • Runs on one desk-side computer in chambers; no cloud, no vendor.
  • Refuses to start while the computer is online, and every outbound connection in its code passes one gate that refuses while chambers mode is open.
  • Only the judge's account can read its folder.
  • A tamper-evident audit log records every action.
  • Courts, circuits and states live in data files, so it adapts to another district or a judge sitting by designation.

The law on the computer

Official text, fetched once and recorded with its source, its date and a fingerprint of its text: the Constitution, the relevant titles of the U.S. Code, the Federal Rules, the court's local rules, state statutes, and a starter set of cases, including Supreme Court opinions from the official reports.

Next: the full federal and state case law, loaded onto a dedicated encrypted drive and checked before use.

What's next

Is it still good law?

A check for later negative treatment, so a case's weight reflects what happened to it afterwards.

Your call

On elements that turn on judgment, the judge records a decision that carries into the bench memo.

Measured accuracy

A scorecard that tests every change against answer keys set by lawyers, and accepts a change only if nothing gets worse.

Points of view

Six labelled readings — Judge, Court of Appeals, Supreme Court, Chancellor, Policy Committee and a jury simulation — read issue by issue against every relevant authority.

The court's own rulings

The judge's prior rulings, loaded from the court's own records, never from the internet.

Current law, safely

Scheduled updates that download into a separate copy, check it, and replace the library only if every check passes.

Arrange a demonstration

In Camera is in active development and is shown to courts by arrangement, on a computer in the room, with synthetic filings.

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