AI was able to edit the picture above but didn’t know you need to wear pants or a dress in court.
Pro se or self-represented litigants are using Artificial Intelligence(AI) to avoid hiring an attorney with poor outcomes. According to NPR, when ChatGPT came out in 2023, the number of pro se cases increased significantly. However, the outcomes of those cases were not better. There are real risks associated with using AI as a substitute for legal counsel.
Hallucination
The Large Language Models(LLMs) are a sophisticated form of AI that predicts the next word in a sentence. They can write a lot content quickly. They can do a variety of tasks and can be an excellent complement to help achieve your goals. However, they are a people pleaser. If you are looking for a case that will help you win in court, AI will give it to you even if it has to invent one. Making up cases is an example of AI hallucinations. Put simply, you can’t believe everything AI tells you. For low risk tasks, that may not be a big deal. But representing yourself in court is not a low risk task.
Real Consequences
Submitting court documents that contain hallucinations can lead to the court removing your documents, dismissing your case, or even fines. Submitting inaccurate or misleading information will get you into trouble.
Judges are not fools. They can spot citations that don’t belong or use other technology tools to help them do it. Both of the “My Pillow” guy’s attorneys were fined $3,000 as a result of submitting a brief to the court that contains AI errors and misrepresentations. Submitting hallucinated content is not just a national issue. Recently, it happened here in Iowa too.
AI driven mistakes and misinformation can reverberate for years for litigants. After getting a divorce, there are specific circumstances that when things change, you might be able to revisit a past decision. E.g. did your spouse get a new high paying job that increased her salary by 200%? It might be grounds to revisit child support. But what about property distribution resulting from the divorce? Not so fast there. That won’t be relitigated. Meaning, if you use AI to come up with a property settlement and AI hallucinates or simply gives bad advice, you have no recourse.
Public AIs Are Not Confidential
If the opposing party knows that you are using AI, they can obtain your prompts and AIs responses. There is no attorney-client privilege when entering in private legal information into a public AI, it is discoverable. It is difficult enough to self-represent in court, it is even worse when the other side knows everything you have thought about and plan to do in detail.
Alternative
Hiring a full service attorney is the best approach, but it may not be something everyone can afford or is able to do. Instead of relying on AI, book an hour of an attorney’s time at Greenberg Law and get real legal advice. Explain your situation to one of our attorneys and they will help you with a roadmap of where you need to go and why. Booking a consultation is not an obligation for future services. Afterwards, you will have the understanding to choose the best way to move forward.
-Jeffrey Greenberg