Meta's smart glasses are now banned from every court in England and Wales

Meta’s smart glasses are now banned from every court and tribunal in England and Wales.

The confirmation

His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service confirmed on August 11, 2026 that Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses fall under the long-standing ban on recording devices in court. Turn up wearing them and they are confiscated at the entrance and handed back when you leave. A court spokesperson explained that there are clear restrictions on taking images or videos within courts and tribunals, which is why the use of Meta glasses is prohibited.

The case that made it urgent

What forced the question happened in January. In an ownership dispute over a property development company, heard by Insolvency and Companies Court Judge Raquel Agnello KC, businessman Laimonas Jakstys gave evidence wearing smart glasses. Counsel told the court she could hear interference coming from around him and asked for the glasses to be removed. Moments later his mobile phone, sitting in his inner jacket pocket, started broadcasting out loud with the voice of someone talking.

The judge found the glasses were connected to the phone, that Jakstys had been assisted or coached in real time, and rejected his evidence in its entirety as unreliable and untruthful. His explanation for the voice coming from his pocket was that he thought it was ChatGPT. The judge found that explanation lacked any credibility. The reports of the case do not establish the brand of glasses involved; the ruling and the ban address the category.

A pattern beyond one courtroom

The mechanic is not unique to litigation. In July, a man in Korea wore AI glasses into a licensing exam and was caught when a proctor spotted the glint in his lenses. Same device class, same trick, and courts carry much higher stakes than a test hall.

The HMCTS move is technically just a clarification: recording devices were already banned, and these are recording devices. The significance is that institutions built on unaided, real-time human testimony are now writing wearable AI into their threat models, and doing it reactively, one incident at a time.