Unrepresented parties using generative AI to craft claims threaten to inundate courts with a tide of slop. Solicitors as well as judges need to learn quickly how to respond
‘The AI hallucinations are becoming a nightmare,’ says the owner of a well-established family law firm. ‘We’re up against a litigant in person who has this list of citations from ChatGPT that are all rubbish. It wastes so much time wading through them.’
While lawyers presenting false case citations to court have made headlines, a quiet epidemic is making its presence felt in the profession, as unrepresented parties rely on generative AI without realising it has churned out – to use the vernacular – slop.
The problem is certainly not confined to the family courts, and there is no denying the potential access to justice benefits from parties using AI, but there are acute issues related to disputes over children. These are cases where parties are often unable to afford a lawyer and are forced to go it alone. A quick glance at Facebook divorce groups shows how often people are advised to use AI to self-represent and save costs. But there is little understanding that search results cannot always be trusted.
As one family lawyer told the Gazette: ‘There are now three parties to every case. Client, opposition and AI. AI sits in the middle.’
Richard Dawson, an AI strategic counsel to law firm leaders, said the problem is ‘rampant’ and quietly fuelling a structural crisis in the courts.
‘The paradox is that AI is being used to help clear the courts backlog, while at the front door, there is a flood of LiP AI-generated content,’ Dawson said. ‘At 9am on any given Monday, a district judge can review a family court list accelerated by Ministry of Justice backend pilots. By 9:04, she is handed a beautifully fluent, flawlessly formatted 17-page position statement filed by a litigant in person. The prose is confident, but the cited case law is complete fiction.
‘A badly governed public large-language model never says to an unrepresented party, “This claim has no merit”. It never tells them they are wrong; it simply tells them they are right, formats their position elegantly, and drops them into a gridlocked court queue.’
Lawyers are becoming attuned to spotting where parties have relied on AI and are starting to work out appropriate responses.
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