Bot Verification Page Requiring Proof-of-Work Challenge to Access Legal Cases
Summary
BAILII deployed Anubis, a proof-of-work verification system using Hashcash-style challenges, to block automated AI scraping of legal case databases. The system requires users to disable JavaScript-blocking plugins such as JShelter and complete computational challenges before accessing case content. The underlying case (EWHC/Admin/2026/901) remains inaccessible behind this verification barrier.
What changed
BAILII implemented Anubis, a proof-of-work-based bot verification system, to protect its servers against aggressive AI web scraping. The system uses Hashcash-style computational challenges that add negligible load for individual users but significantly increase the cost of mass automated access. Website visitors must use modern JavaScript and disable plugins like JShelter to bypass the verification page and access legal case documents.
For compliance professionals and legal researchers seeking UK court decisions via BAILII, this change means automated data collection workflows may require modification to handle proof-of-work challenges or obtain content through alternative legal research providers. The system is described as a temporary measure while more sophisticated headless browser fingerprinting is developed.
Archived snapshot
Apr 18, 2026GovPing captured this document from the original source. If the source has since changed or been removed, this is the text as it existed at that time.
Making sure you're not a bot!
Loading...
You are seeing this because the administrator of this website has set up Anubis to protect the server against the scourge of AI companies aggressively scraping websites. This can and does cause downtime for the websites, which makes their resources inaccessible for everyone.
Anubis is a compromise. Anubis uses a Proof-of-Work scheme in the vein of Hashcash, a proposed proof-of-work scheme for reducing email spam. The idea is that at individual scales the additional load is ignorable, but at mass scraper levels it adds up and makes scraping much more expensive.
Ultimately, this is a placeholder solution so that more time can be spent on fingerprinting and identifying headless browsers (EG: via how they do font rendering) so that the challenge proof of work page doesn't need to be presented to users that are much more likely to be legitimate.
Please note that Anubis requires the use of modern JavaScript features that plugins like JShelter will disable. Please disable JShelter or other such plugins for this domain.
Related changes
Get daily alerts for BAILII England & Wales Recent Decisions
Daily digest delivered to your inbox.
Free. Unsubscribe anytime.
About this page
Every important government, regulator, and court update from around the world. One place. Real-time. Free. Our mission
Source document text, dates, docket IDs, and authority are extracted directly from BAILII.
The summary, classification, recommended actions, deadlines, and penalty information are AI-generated from the original text and may contain errors. Always verify against the source document.
Classification
Who this affects
Taxonomy
Browse Categories
Get alerts for this source
We'll email you when BAILII England & Wales Recent Decisions publishes new changes.
Subscribed!
Optional. Filters your digest to exactly the updates that matter to you.