If you are contemplating a legal claim or preparing a deed or contract, you may have considered or already used AI software to do so. In fact, the AI software you are using may be actively encouraging you.
Understandably, using AI software to prepare a legal claim is convenient and cost-effective but comes with serious risks and limitations. For example, AI software is known to “hallucinate,” generating fictitious citations and legal references. Moreover, there are serious confidentiality issues if privileged or confidential documents are uploaded to an AI software, as the AI software is programmed to use inputs to train itself.
Importantly, AI software’s greatest shortcoming for self-represented litigants is that it may generate a legal claim that, on the face of it seems cogent, but in reality, does not specifically address the legal claim being made.
This was the case in Yang v Nought [2025] FWC 1205, where the Applicant pursued an unfair dismissal case used Chat-GPT to draft their claim. The Court noted that the AI generated materials did not properly address the legal issues in contention and therefore did not assist the Applicant in their claim.
Thurlow Fisher Lawyers bring an innovative approach to the use of AI and the practice of law. What we would encourage you to do, if you are inclined to endeavour to pursue any type of legal matter be it: estate planning, family law, conveyancing, partnership arrangements, etc., regardless of what you intend using AI to assist you with, we encourage you to get us to check to see what you are doing.
There are two reasons for this. Firstly, is so that what you are doing is legally correct and properly represents what you want to try and achieve. Secondly, is that we have the benefit of extensive insurance so that you are getting two levels of protection, firstly, our professional expertise and secondly, the backing of our insurance cover.
If you are contemplating using AI software to prepare you legal claim or to draft a deed or contract, we would be more than happy to review the AI-generated materials and confirm their content and validity.
