Overload to Insight: How Brief One Helps Legal Professionals Work Smarter

Every prosecutor and public defender knows the feeling: a mountain of digital evidence, an unrelenting caseload, and not nearly enough hours in the day.

Across the justice system, the rising data challenge facing today’s attorneys, from body-worn cameras to jail calls, has reshaped what it means to prepare a case. As legal professionals spend more and more time searching through hours of video and audio, many are asking a simple question: How do we get back to the work that matters most: uncovering the truth and pursuing justice?

That’s the question Brief One set out to answer. And in offices from Tennessee to Texas, the impact is already taking hold.

The Volume Problem

For justice professionals like Jonathan Eisenrich, who handles digital forensics for the Brazos County District Attorney’s Office, the scale of evidence has become staggering.

It used to be a sizable case had maybe 500 pieces of evidence. Now we’re regularly hitting the 8,000 to 10,000 mark. It has just exploded beyond our wildest imagination.

And with that explosion comes a new kind of challenge — time.

Brian Baker, First Assistant District Attorney in the same office, described how that volume is reshaping justice itself.

What scares me from the standpoint of seeking justice and keeping our community safe is there’s just not enough time. We’re spending maybe 70% of our time just trying to get the evidence to the defense and being able to get through it. Sometimes cases are pled down because we just can’t get through it all.

In Tennessee, Brittany Lavalle, Deputy Executive Director of Operations for the Tennessee District Attorneys General Conference, sees the same strain statewide.

We went through a workload study this year that showed we need a minimum of 75 additional attorneys just to meet current demands. This tool is giving our prosecutors the ability to work through this explosion of digital evidence and feel confident they’re getting to the key moments and key facts.

The same challenge, too much evidence, too little time, is one public defenders know all too well. With heavy caseloads and strict disclosure obligations, both sides of the courtroom face the same pressure: review everything, verify everything, and do it fast.

From Hours to Minutes

Among customers already using Brief One, one theme stands out: trust but verify — the belief that AI should accelerate the work, not replace human judgment.

Brief One’s ability to generate AI-powered transcript summaries and help identify key moments has fundamentally changed how prosecutors and defenders triage their cases while maintaining full control of the review process.

Eisenrich described the transformation most clearly when talking about jail calls, a type of evidence that, until recently, many offices simply couldn’t keep up with.

We had interns and prosecutors just trying to make sense of jail calls. Now we can upload them all into Axon, get AI summaries, and at a glance tell what’s useful and what’s not. It took jail calls from taking days to a matter of hours.

For Rebecca Gross, a Technical Litigation Analyst with the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office, those summaries have become essential for trial prep and charging decisions.

We had a prosecutor trying to decide whether to indict a case. The interview was two hours long and he didn’t have time to watch it. Then the summary popped up; he read it and it answered his question. He realized he couldn’t prove the case and cleared it off his desk. What would’ve taken hours took minutes.

Her team initially approached the tool with caution, echoing a sentiment shared by many across the justice community.

We were hesitant because transcripts aren’t always a hundred percent accurate. But it’s amazing how accurate the summaries are. Even when the transcript isn’t perfect, the summary still captures the key facts.

That sense of confidence, grounded in accuracy, transparency, and human oversight, is what builds real trust.

Sharper Trials, Smarter Teams

For Lavalle, Brief One’s Key Moments feature, which pinpoints crucial points in video and audio evidence, is now a cornerstone of trial preparation.

It’s especially useful when I’m clipping things for presentation at trial. Instead of scrolling through hours of footage, it takes you directly to where those key moments are located. For some of our less tech-savvy prosecutors, it’s been a game changer.

That same precision benefits defenders too, helping both sides focus their time on substance rather than navigation, and ultimately strengthening case quality for everyone involved.

At the same time, Baker pointed out how Brief One improves efficiency in everyday courtroom practice.

Most cases are resolved in a plea agreement. When a defense attorney says, ‘I need to find the spot where my guy confesses,’ we used to reset the case. Now we can jump right to that point, show it, and move the case forward that day. It saves time, tax dollars, and keeps cases moving.

AI as a Force Multiplier

Across justice agencies, one principle guides the responsible use of AI tools like Brief One: they’re built to assist, not decide.

Lavalle acknowledged that adopting AI in legal work can feel unfamiliar at first.

AI in general makes me nervous. We’ve adopted a ‘trust but verify’ approach: the same way we’d use AI for legal research. It points you to the right place, but you still review it yourself. That’s how we teach our attorneys to use it.

Baker echoed that balance:

We can’t solve staffing issues unless we find a tool that helps people actually have work-life balance. This isn’t about replacing prosecutors, it’s about helping them do what they came here to do.

And Eisenrich framed it best, describing Brief One as a force multiplier, not a replacement.

MIT found the most successful AI integrations weren’t replacements — they were force multipliers,” he said. “That’s what Brief One is. Discovery is the biggest pain point in prosecution, and having something that’s CJIS-compliant and secure is huge.

That same principle, trust but verify, guides public defenders as well, ensuring that AI tools enhance diligence without compromising professional judgment.

Reclaiming the Mission

Across every story, a single message came through: Brief One helps legal professionals regain control of their evidence and their time.

In Lavalle’s words, it’s about “getting to the meat of the problem” and helping both new and seasoned attorneys feel confident they’ve found the facts that matter most.

By turning long hours of review into minutes of clarity, Brief One is enabling justice offices nationwide, from prosecutors to defenders, to work faster, smarter and more confidently.

And at its core, it embodies a principle every legal professional can stand behind: trust the technology, verify the results, and focus on delivering justice.