NAPD Virtual Tech Expo 2026

Explore how the Center for Law, Brain and Behavior NeuroLaw Library empowers public defenders to integrate neuroscience into juvenile and young adult criminal defense strategies. This session will showcase the library’s cutting-edge tools and resources, designed to provide accessible, research-based information about brain development, trauma, and adolescent behavior. Attendees will learn how to use this free, open-source technology to craft compelling arguments for mitigating culpability, promoting alternatives to incarceration, and advocating for rehabilitation-focused outcomes. Tailored for the tech-savvy defender, this presentation offers practical guidance on harnessing neuroscience to advance justice and equity in young clients' cases. Based at Massachusetts General Hospital, the mission of the Center for Law, Brain & Behavior is to transform law and criminal justice through the use of accurate, actionable neuroscience.  link to library - www.clbbneurolawlibrary.com

Public defense teams are navigating an evolving landscape where technology, especially AI, possess the potential to transform workflows and support employee sustainability. But how do we move people to adopt and embrace these innovations? This session will showcase a real-world example of efficiency in action from Brett Schandelson of the State of Montana. We will demystify the process of AI adoption, emphasizing a human-centric approach that prioritizes education, team alignment, and practical implementation strategies.

Using AI Agents for Automated Follow-Ups

• DA Follow-Ups for Pre-Indictment Offers
   AI agents can draft personalized, natural-sounding requests to the DA for pre-indictment offers, based on your typical tone and follow-up style, and manage timelines for subsequent follow-ups.
• Automated Scheduling for New On-Bond Clients
   We can use AI to manage new client intake, handling scheduling for initial meetings in real time by syncing with our calendar and the client’s preferred times, ensuring no client slips through the cracks.

Chatbots for Client Questions and Court Information
A client-facing chatbot can answer common questions, such as court date, location, or whether a personal appearance is necessary. The bot could adapt to each client’s preferred contact method (text, email, etc.) for responses and then if the client has a question requiring legal advice it will schedule an appointment based on the attorneys availabilities
Link to resources

The volume, velocity, and variety of digital evidence is growing at an exponential rate, presenting a huge challenge for defense attorneys.

In this session, we’ll discuss how AI-powered Digital Evidence Management can digitally transform the critical work that you do, every day.

Criminal defense attorneys have used AI to inform their defense strategies, while also restoring balance to the criminal justice system by holding all parties in check. AI is also helping to tame information overload by automating legal research and evidence analysis.

Join us to learn how to:

• Automate evidence collection to access it sooner
• Cut case preparation time, costs, and reduce case backlog
• Make previously unsearchable evidence types searchable, using Object Character Recognition (OCR)
• Uncover hidden connections to ensure you’re not missing any evidence
• Automate transcription of audio and video, and quickly redact it, using automated face and object detection
• Bridge the understaffing gap
• Prepare for next-level AI

Creating a Data Pipeline for Public Odyssey Records
 Similarly, by building a data pipeline for Public Odyssey records, we can automatically gather case status updates, prior convictions, and other critical data, which would otherwise require manual entry and checking
Practicing Cross-Examination with AI-Modeled Expert Witnesses
 AI can analyze past testimony of well-known State experts and simulate their responses, helping us practice and refine our cross-examination approach in a realistic way.
Generating Mitigation Packets After Initial Client Meetings
Generate comprehensive mitigation packets immediately after the first client meeting by transcribing a recording of the meeting and organizing background details, social history, and personal narratives. This saves time by creating a draft that can be quickly reviewed and expanded upon, followed up on by the client and by investigators, and even drafting the cover letter to the DA.
Link to resources

1. Understand how to use AI to identify systemic issues, such as racial disparities or sentencing patterns, in public defense cases.
2. Learn techniques to present data-driven arguments in court to support systemic challenges.
3. Explore ways to leverage AI tools to build compelling narratives for reform advocacy.
4. Develop skills to gather and analyze data using AI for legislative, court, and public presentations.
5. Discuss the ethical considerations and best practices when using AI-generated data in systemic advocacy efforts.

Video Coming Soon
The challenges of handling vast amounts of discovery—spanning documents, audio, video, and images—can be overwhelming. This presentation will showcase how TrialKit leverages AI to streamline discovery review and case preparation.

The live demo will highlight how TrialKit’s tools simplify discovery and trial preparation, including:

• Automatically organizing discovery materials with transcription, entity extraction, and object detection.
• Enabling natural language search to locate evidence effortlessly, whether it’s buried in text, audio, video, or images.
• Helping attorneys tag key facts, build fact and witness charts, and link directly to relevant media clips for seamless trial preparation.
• Facilitating collaboration with teammates by assigning tasks and sharing insights directly within the platform.

1. Understand the key elements that should be included in a policy for AI use in public defense offices.
2. Learn to assess and mitigate risks associated with the use of AI tools in the context of public defense.
3. Develop a framework for evaluating new AI tools and determining their suitability for office use.
4. Explore best practices for drafting office policies to address data security and ethical use of AI technologies.
5. Learn strategies to involve stakeholders, including staff and clients, in policy creation and updates.

Live demonstration with a single case from the perspective of a public defender preparing for trial using ZLS.ai.

1. Receiving the case Discovery and summarizing the police report
2. Extracting witnesses and officers from the police report to add to ZLS.app; conflict checking
3. Crafting cross-examination questions in leading format for a preliminary hearing
4. Corresponding with spanish-speaking family
5. Receiving medical records and creating a summary and identifying key data points such as diagnoses or personality disorder flags
6. Utilizing ZLS.ai chat to do legal research brainstorming
7. Crunching case notes with AI when client calls in to let him know all the work we've done
8. Receiving body worn video discovery and leveraging whisper AI and built-in tools for various insights
9. Trial prep with motion in limine brainstorming