Tracked Changes, Thursday, July 23, 2026
Iowa Supreme Court adopts rules for judges' use of AI, effective January 1, 2027
On July 21, the Iowa Supreme Court adopted Chapter 27 of the Iowa Court Rules, which governs how judges and their staff use AI tools when deciding cases. Judges must not defer to AI work product, and they or their staff must verify every factual or legal source it produces. AI tools may touch case information only if a new governance committee approves them. The rules take effect January 1, 2027.
Paxton AI lets attorneys at the same firm share litigation matters under their own logins
Paxton AI announced Secure Matter Collaboration on July 17. The company says attorneys at the same firm can now work on one litigation matter with shared files and outputs, each signing in with their own account, while the firm controls access matter by matter to respect ethical walls. It currently covers medical billing summaries, motions, chronologies and case drafts. Paxton says it is available now.
Midpage adds statutes, regulations and agency guidance for all 50 states and federal law
Legal research startup Midpage added statutes, regulations, constitutions and agency guidance for all 50 states and the federal government, LawSites reported on July 23. The company says this adds more than 4 million documents to a database of over 14 million opinions. Statute and regulation collections update weekly. Codes for Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas were still being rebuilt.
Microsoft's legal department, about 2,000 people, will use Harvey for legal and compliance work
Microsoft's Corporate, External, and Legal Affairs group, which has roughly 2,000 people, will use Harvey's platform for its legal and compliance work, LawSites reported on July 23. Harvey, in turn, will expand its own use of Microsoft 365 Copilot. Harvey's chief operating officer said more than 1,000 in-house legal teams use its platform. In March, Harvey said it was building an agent inside Microsoft 365 Copilot.