We had the Victorian position reviewed alongside New South Wales, because between them they appeared to have the strictest requirements in the country.
The short answer
Victoria does not require the court's permission. There is no leave requirement anywhere in the Victorian system.
What Victoria requires instead is that you be able to account for what the tool did.
The Supreme Court and County Court
The Supreme Court of Victoria issued its current practice note on artificial intelligence in May 2026, replacing guidelines from 2024. The County Court aligned with it in June 2026. A good deal of the commentary still circulating cites the superseded version, so it is worth checking the date on anything you read.
There is no prior leave requirement. What the practice note requires is that you verify AI produced content with meaningful human control, that you be able to identify which portions of a document were AI produced, and that you be able to explain the verification you undertook.
For expert reports specifically it requires caution, and continued compliance with the applicable expert witness code or practice note.
In other words, no permission, but provenance. If you cannot point at the AI assisted parts of your report and say how you checked them, you have a problem that has nothing to do with leave.
Criminal trials
There is a more specific requirement in criminal trials in the Supreme and County Courts.
Where an expert has used AI to assist in generating or expressing the opinion contained in the report, that must be disclosed in the report, together with any possible bias the tool may introduce.
If you do fitness to plead or sentencing assessments, that is your rule.
VCAT
VCAT has the most detailed rule in either state.
AI may be used to assist in the preparation of an expert report, but must not be used to generate the opinion itself. Where it has been used, you disclose the tool, including whether it is closed loop or open loop, the material you submitted to it, and which part of the report was AI prepared.
That is relevant for guardianship and discrimination matters.
The other Victorian courts
Other Victorian courts and tribunals have their own requirements and we have not had those reviewed. If you write for the Magistrates' Court, the Coroners Court or the Children's Court, check the position that applies to your matter.
The distinction underneath it
Victoria draws a related but slightly different line from New South Wales. The concern is not only how much of the report was AI assisted. It is whether the opinion expressed, and the reasoning behind it, is genuinely yours, personally verified with meaningful human control.
The VCAT rule puts it most plainly. AI may assist in preparing the report. It must not generate the opinion.
Preparatory work sits comfortably on one side of that line. Organising materials, chronologies, indexes and schedules, transcription including by an AI scribe, translation, formatting and summarising source documents. Generating proposed wording, narrative, analysis, reasoning or conclusions sits on the other, and that is the part you need to be able to identify and explain.
What to do on Monday
Find out which forum your report is going to, and whether it is a criminal matter, because that changes what you disclose.
Keep a record as you go. What you used, what for, which parts of the report it assisted with, and what you put into it. In Victoria you are not required to volunteer that record, but you must be able to produce it and explain it if asked, and reconstructing it after the fact is close to impossible.
Write the opinion yourself, in your own words, and verify every factual and clinical assertion against the source material.
If a forum you write for is not covered here, check the position rather than assuming ours transfers.
Current as at 15 October 2026. This is general information about what the court rules require. It is not legal advice and it is not advice about your report, your matter or your proceeding. We obtained advice from a commercial law firm for Virtuosa. For your own report, check the position with your instructing solicitor or your own legal adviser.