Artificial Intelligence for the Legal Sector – Boon or Doom?

Happy Anniversary to ChatGPT- it has been over a year since the AI generative tool was first previewed and as many of you are already aware, this platform, together with many others which have launched since (for example, Bing from Microsoft) have somewhat taken away the spotlight from us humans.

Many industries are keen to evolve with this fast-paced technology; however, some would say that the legal profession appear to be taking a steady and cautious approach to the same. Over the year, there have been several publications suggesting AI is the end of the legal profession – we in the Litigation & Disputes team at Lawson West however disagree.

AI tools are not to be considered as a replacement for legal advice. Not only have we seen many examples of where bias is presented within the responses, falsified case law authorities have also been generated. In May 2023, an American Barrister had made submissions on behalf of its client suing a Colombian Airline in which case law authorities had been made-up. It was quickly pointed-out by the opponent Barrister that such cases simply did not exist. Apart from the sheer embarrassment and sanctions ordered for the claimant’s Barrister, this highlights the inaccuracies and grave consequences in substituting your lawyer for AI.

Strategic use of AI does however have the potential to assist lawyers in streamlining processes. In a recent article by the Law Gazette, it was suggested that all small claims matters (where the value is below £10,000) should be outsourced to AI. Such automation where costs are reduced would be highly advantageous for clients, especially given the recent expansion of fixed recoverable costs up to claims valued up to £100,000.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has outlined risks the legal profession should consider when using AI which include:

• Ensuring confidential and privileged information or any personal data is NOT shared with the AI tool;

• Verifying the responses produced by the AI tool to ensure accuracy of fact and to avoid any bias; and

• Checking whether any intellectual property rights are not infringed as a result of the response generated by the AI tool.

Our Litigation & Disputes team at Lawson West is keen to continue to provide hands-on support for clients, allowing them to not only have a familiar face when receiving the advice, but feel rest assured that the advice received is tailored to their specific needs.

Whilst we, as many others in the legal industry are, keen to see the implementation of AI with the Courts to streamline processes, us lawyers are very much here to stay.

Please contact the lawyers within our team to confidentially discuss any dispute you may have. Contact Us

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