By Hannah Close, Trainee Solicitor, CLR Law
The chatter around Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its intersection with the legal profession has become increasingly prominent in recent months. Like many other industries, AI has been responsible for a major shift in traditional practices and approaches, along with client behaviour.
Legal professionals
Upon starting my journey within the profession, I was surprised to learn of the increasing distrust in legal professionals as a result of legal advice provided by AI. There is a growing number of claimants accessing AI for advice and assessments on their cases prior to seeking advice from a qualified legal professional, which often leads to unrealistic expectations with regards to the strength of their case, the level of recoverable compensation and the overall progression of their matter. Additionally, AI lacks the nuanced thinking that a human can provide, which leads to errors in judgement and incorrect advice. When attempting to manage or correct these expectations, it is increasingly difficult for lawyers to navigate and redirect clients from the unrealistic AI advice as any contrary information can come as a disappointment when matters cannot progress in the expected way.
Legal professionals are qualified in what they do, meaning they offer reliable advice based on previous experience and in-depth research (usually using good AI tools to support this research). However, AI cannot mimic the sentience of a human, and its failure to do so can be particularly detrimental in an employment case where personal relationships are often central to the disputes. This is why we always seek to understand the human element, and not just the law.
Claimants
This shift in claimant behaviour directly contributes to the second major challenge, which is the increased burden on respondents. Individuals can now easily generate written complaints, questions and grievances. While some may be using AI to assist them in voicing genuine concerns, the accessibility of this tool has led to a significant increase in the number of AI-assisted grievances, which are often extremely lengthy and difficult to approach due to the lack of contextual understanding. Sometimes, individuals may not even know exactly what material the grievance includes and will struggle to provide evidence for a point that they have raised when asked to provide clarity by the respondent.
Respondents
The length and convoluted nature of some of these documents requires respondents to spend substantial amounts of time (and money) attempting to evaluate and pinpoint concerns before they can even seek to provide any resolution. This imposes an obvious burden on resources, particularly within SMEs and smaller respondents who may not have a large HR or administrative team ready and able to dedicate their time to dealing with such volumes of work.
Ultimately, the rise of AI in the legal sector presents a double-edged sword. While it can provide individuals with a basis for deciding whether they would like to pursue a matter, it can also mislead and misinform on a large scale. While sometimes making an individual’s life easier in principle, it has adverse implications on that of their legal representative or employer in attempting to deal with AI generated queries and in reversing unrealistic expectations. It also leads to delay both before litigation and once a claim has been lodged.
If you would like to understand the impact of AI in employment matters, please do not hesitate to contact our team on hello@clrlaw.co.uk or 0191 603 0061 for more information.