AI legal advice gone wrong
A barrister has publicly raised concerns about the increasing use of ChatGPT in legal drafting after a litigant-in-person (LiP) seemingly relied on the AI tool to draft witness statements and skeleton arguments.
Posting on LinkedIn this week, barrister William Rees-Mogg shared his experience of a recent small claims hearing where the litigant-in-person (LiP)—someone without legal representation—was “unable to support her own ‘evidence’ in court.” The LiP admitted to using ChatGPT to draft an inaccurate witness statement, according to the barrister, whilst “several other discrepancies in her other statements could be explained the same way”.
The skeleton argument ChatGPT drafted did cite real cases but made mistakes “immediately obvious to any lawyer” although “hard to spot for someone without training”.
For Rees-Mogg — who is a member of Whitestone Chambers which has a rather eye-catching website — the real worry was that ChatGPT gives non-lawyers confidence in wrong legal advice.
“[T]he LiP had produced a skeleton argument, which appeared also to have been written with AI assistance,” he wrote. “The skeleton cited relevant authority, with significant (but plausible) inaccuracies. This goes to show the risk of using generative AI for legal purposes as matters stand. The errors in that skeleton would be immediately obvious to any lawyer (or anyone with the knowledge base to find a copy of the relevant case and read it for themselves) but would be hard to spot for someone without training. This is arguably much more dangerous than generative AI producing an obviously wrong answer which can be spotted by a lay person immediately.”
ChatGPT isn’t just getting LiPs into awkward situations. Last month, an Australian lawyer was referred to a legal complaints commission after he admitted to using ChatGPT.
Earlier this year, the Bar Council issued guidance stating that while the use of AI is not ‘inherently improper,’ barristers should exercise caution and carefully assess the associated risks.
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